Harvard to Assume Full Responsibility For Radcliffe Undergraduate Education

Radcliffe will turn over to Harvard full responsibility for the management of undergraduate education and affairs under an agreement signed yesterday by Presidents Bok and Horner.

The agreement, which will replace the first arrangement for co-education signed in 1943, stipulates that the President of Radcliffe will be consulted in forming policies affecting undergraduates. Radcliffe, however, will focus its attention primarily on graduate studies.

Radcliffe will resume fiscal responsibility for all its operations outside undergraduate education. These operations will be funded by the income from its real estate holdings and endowment.

"We could have merged and turned all of our programs over to Harvard but the strong sense of the Radcliffe tradition has prevailed over the years and Radcliffe will remain an independent institution," Horner said Tuesday.

Horner added that many alumnae strongly objected to a complete merger and want Radcliffe to maintain some control over the instruction of women.

It's About Time

"It has been my sense that this is an agreement which specifies what has occurred over the past ten years and I am glad that it has been signed," Robert E. Kaufman '62, associate dean of the Faculty for finance and administration, said yesterday.

Radcliffe now transfers to Harvard all of the income from its endowment, tuition and real estate and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has assumed the total cost of its operation, including any deficits, under a 1971 amendment to the 1943 agreement.

Under the new agreement, to become effective July 1, Radcliffe will contribute a specified amount of money for financial aid, but tuition money for Radcliffe students will continue to be paid to Harvard.

Next year, Radcliffe will contribute $940,946 towards scholarships for women. Kaufman estimated that the total cost for financial aid for Radcliffe students will be 2.5 million dollars next year.

Equality and Fraternity

The current equal-access admissions policy for undergraduates will continue under the agreement and Radcliffe students will continue to be enrolled in Radcliffe as well as Harvard College.

Horner said she is pleased that the agreement more clearly defines her authority in policy decisions at the University.

In addition to her advisory role, Horner will direct a research unit which will be used as an intellectual resource for the two presidents in connection with the significant issues affecting the education and the role of women throughout Harvard.

The new unit will be jointly administered by Bok and Horner.

The Joint Policy Committee, the group of eight officials from both colleges which originally drafted the new agreement, will continue to exist. The committee is expected to review the agreement again in 1985.