Sports Are Domain of Harvard College

We hope that a bit of factual context might clarify the picture of women's athletics presented in the April 11 opinion piece by Heather Haxo Phillips ("A Model for a Women's Community"), which suggests that there is a separate Radcliffe athletic program comprised of the teams that use the Radcliffe name.

Radcliffe does indeed have a proud athletic history--competitions were taking place in swimming, field hockey, crew, tennis and other sports in the early years of this century, long before athleticism was widely valued for college women.

In 1974--three years before Radcliffe delegated to Harvard all responsibility for undergraduate affairs--the Harvard Department of Athletics assumed full responsibility for women's athletics. Over the past 20 years, Harvard has developed the broadest intercollegiate women's athletic program in the country, with varsity teams in twenty women's sports and a great variety of subvarsity opportunities. USA Today recently reported that Harvard was one of only a handful of institutions across the country to meet its obligations to women athletes under Title IX by the "proportionality test."

Radcliffe remains independent of Harvard, both financially and organizationally; women students are members of both Harvard and Radcliffe. However, all the athletic teams are financially and organizationally part of Harvard. A few teams have chosen to retain the Radcliffe name and colors, but there is no other difference between them and the other women's teams--both the Harvard women's basketball team and the Radcliffe crew are coached by Harvard coaches, and their operating budgets are paid entirely from Harvard sources.

When teams have unbudgeted opportunities, for example to participate in national competitions, they sometimes conduct special fundraising efforts. Both Harvard and Radcliffe (as well as the Undergraduate Council and other sources) have helped to cover some of these costs.

Both Harvard and Radcliffe are proud of the extraordinary personal and team successes our women have enjoyed, including championships in both basketball and squash this year. Both institutions recognize that the athletic program is Harvard's responsibility, and expect that women students will continue to turn to Harvard for support of women's athletics. --Harry R. Lewis '68, McKay Professor of Computer Science, Dean of Harvard College, Chair, Faculty Standing Commitee on Athletic Sports; Tamar March, Dean of Radcliffe Educational Programs