Women Students Want Radcliffe To Assume More Active Role

Fourteen undergraduate women met yesterday with a special visiting committee and said that Radcliffe should take a more active role in solving problems affecting women students.

The committee, made up of Harvard and Radcliffe trustees, overseers and alumni, met for the first time yesterday listening to students for about an hour before holding a closed meeting.

The 1977 agreement in which Radcliffe gave Harvard day-to-day responsibility for undergraduate women also set up the visiting committee to evaluate periodically women's educational opportunities at the University.

Analisa Torres '81, the only minority student in the group, questioned Radcliffe's commitment to minorities. She added there has been no response to her request for courses on minority cultures or on women minority members.

Several students said they felt women were disadvantaged under the work-study program. A larger percentage of undergraduate men on financial aid than women have work-study jobs because Harvard receives disproportionately more funding under the program.

All in the Family

Marilyn McDermott '79 said her brother was considered eligible for Harvard's work-study program but she was ineligible for the same program at Radcliffe.

Lorna Straus, a member of the committee, said that last spring, Harvard received permission from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to transfer some of its work-study fund to Radcliffe without jeopardizing Radcliffe's independent status to help amend the discrepancy.

The low number of women Faculty was a major concern of students who also said women Faculty and students are not encouraged to be scholarsas strongly as men.

Nancy Krieger '80 said Radcliffe lacks a sense of community. Seniors present agreed that in their four years here each incoming class has felt less of a need than the class before for a separate institution like Radcliffe to insure them a place in the University.

"What Radcliffe offers doesn't seem to address the needs of undergraduate women now. I don't need a Halloween party from Radcliffe," Kathleen Gygi '79 said.

The committee will not make specific policy recommendations as a result of this meeting, Howard R. Johnson '39 said yesterday. The group will "make observations" and submit them to the Board of Overseers and Board of Trustees, he added.

The committee will meet again in the spring, Johnson said