Women Join Competition For 32 Harvard Prizes

The President and Fellows of Harvard College decided Monday to make Radcliffe students eligible for 32 prizes, scholarships and fellowships which had previously been restricted to Harvard men.

The decision of the President and Fellows becomes effective immediately. This means, for example, that Radcliffe students can compete for the four Sheldon Fellowships to be awarded to undergraduates this year for travel and study after graduation.

John Orders, assistant director of the Office for Graduate and Career Planning, said, "There will be no quotas on the number of men and women who receive the prizes. The selection committee will be sex blind."

Orders added that notices will be sent to all Houses and departments asking for further nominations of women for the fellowships.

Despite the decision, 24 funds are still limited to students at Harvard College. The President and Fellows changed the status of only those funds "which are not expressly or by clear implication limited to students in Harvard College or to males."

Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel to the University, said, "The awards whose terms explicitly refer to Harvard College students cannot be changed as long as the separate relationship between Harvard and Radcliffe remains.

"If there are any significant changes in the relationship between Harvard and Radcliffe, the terms of the funds will have to be reviewed again. The President and Fellows looked at the present factual situation in relation to the specific terms of each prize," he added.

Because of their terms, the 13 Radcliffe funds would remain restricted to Radcliffe College students, a counsel to Radcliffe College has stated.

Steiner said that the Corporation "didn't really discuss Radcliffe funds," adding. "Radcliffe has the fiduciary responsibility for its own funds. It was not up to the Harvard Corporation to decide about Radcliffe funds. That's Radcliffe's responsibility."

The Corporation decision was based on an extensive review of the terms of all the prize funds, which was begun by Steiner last summer. The review came after the 1971 amendment to the basic non-merger agreement between Radcliffe and Harvard. The amendment, by its terms, is to be reviewed in 1975.

Last week a petition was circulated around the University protesting that the fellowships were limited to men. The petitions with both student and faculty signatures were submitted last Wednesday to President Bok.

Only one of the fellowships which the petition tried to change, the Sheldon, was opened to women. The Frank Knox, the Shaw and the MacKenzie King Scholarships remain limited to men.

Dean Dunlop announced yesterday that Kari Strauch, professor of Physics, will chair a seven-member executive committee which will coordinate the activities of the new Science Center.

"The aim of the executive committee is to establish the ground rules, to organize the Center, and to run it in its initial period," Strauch said last night.

The Science Center--intended to strengthen the education of both those undergraduates interested in the sciences and those concentrating in other areas--will open most of its offices in the Fall of 1972, and will be fully available in 1973.

Also on the executive committee with Strauch are: Lawrence Bogorad, professor of Biology; Charles W. Burnham, professor of Mineralogy; Andrew Gleason, Hollis Professor of Mathematics; Guido Guidotti, Professor of Biochemistry; Leonard K. Nash, professor of Chemistry; and Edward M. Purcell, Gade Professor of Physics.

Serving ex officio are Richard D. Leahy, assistant to the Dean, and Edward T. Wilcox, director of General Education