RCAA Queries Institute Leaders About Future

The women who will be expected to sustain and support the new Radcliffe Institute told Acting Dean Mary Maples Dunn and Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 that they are still confused about the Institute's mission and focus at a meeting Saturday.

More than 50 women attended the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association (RCAA) event in order to push the two about the Institute's future. The question-and-answer session is part of a nationwide tour Dunn began when she traveled to Chicago last Wednesday.

Alumnae focused both on the future of their own organization--not mentioned in the merger deal that took effect Friday--and on the nebulous academic emphasis of the new Institute.

Several attendees were particularly concerned that the Institute's mission statement does not confine its focus to women and gender, but rather calls for academic research across the disciplines.

"How do I know that in 50 years this Institute won't be run by men for advanced study of many interesting questions that have nothing to do with women, gender and society?" asked Diana E. Post '67, RCAA second vice president.

But Dunn and Fineberg insisted that, with alumnae help, the Institute's commitment to women will be real.

"We can't know what we will have in 50 years," Dunn said. "What we have now is the energy of many women who are committed to that part of the mission."

What will tie the Institute together, Fineberg said, will be its commitment to research of the highest order, inviting scholars from around the world to apply to Radcliffe fellowships.

"If you are a president of any university in the world, and you're looking for a new faculty member, the first thing you'll do is get a hold of a list of the Radcliffe scholars. And the first person you'll call is the dean of the Radcliffe Institute," he said of the Institute of the future.

Dunn announced that with the help of the Institute's $350 million endowment, all current fellowships at the Institute are now funded positions.

Alumnae also asked about the future of the 30,000-member RCAA, which has always been funded by Radcliffe College.

Dunn assured the group that the Institute would continue to fund RCAA activities.

"But I will anticipate that the RCAA will support the new Institute," she said. "There has to be some quid pro quo."

While meeting attendees praised Dunn and Fineberg's candor, several questioned whether alumnae would rally around the new Institute.

"I apologize if I sound like a skunk at a garden party," said Joan B. Pinck '50. "I think you need to put a better spin on it. I see myself calling people and saying all these things and explaining all these things and not walking away with a check."