Harvard, Radcliffe To Sign Finalized Merger This Week

Harvard University and Radcliffe College will sign a legal document finalizing the terms of their merger this week, officials confirmed Friday. The two schools announced their intention to unite last April.

According to a deal approved by the Radcliffe Board of Trustees Sept. 2, Radcliffe College will dissolve--and the new Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study will be born--at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1. On that day, Harvard College will assume full responsibility for all female undergraduates.

A new grant-giving organization, the Ann Radcliffe Trust, will help sponsor events and student groups targeting women's and gender issues, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 will announce this week.

The Institute will be backed by Radcliffe College's $200 million endowment and $150 million from Harvard, forming a center for study in fields spanning the academic and creative disciplines with an emphasis on gender. The Institute will be headed by a dean and will be considered on par with Harvard's nine faculties, including the Law School and the Medical School.

Harvard Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 called the imminent agreement "essentially the same" as the April deal.

But the document does clarify some issues left unresolved last spring, including the future of many of Radcliffe's undergraduate programs. Some of these programs have traditionally been limited to female membership, violating stated Harvard College policy against discrimination.

With the final deal, Radcliffe has now agreed to cede its undergraduate programming to Lewis' office. Lewis will assess the effects of the new arrangement on traditionally Radcliffe-sponsored programs in the coming months.

Leaders of the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) have already been told that they must allow men to become voting members in order to continue to be recognized as a student organization.

But Lewis said RUS, traditionally funded by a $5 term bill assessment to all female undergraduates, and the other student groups that have been funded through the RUS grant process, need not necessarily worry about future funding.

The Radcliffe Trust, funded by the College and the new Radcliffe Institute, will develop a grant process this year under the leadership of Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery '87. The trust will take over the programmatic responsibilities of the two-year-old Harvard College Women's Initiative, which sponsors lectures and awards related to women's issues.

"This is the year of transition, the year when undergraduates work things out with Harvard College," says Interim Radcliffe President Mary Maples Dunn.

Radcliffe officials have also spent the summer preparing the school for its October reincarnation. A $110,000 foundation grant will help cover administrative costs of the transition, ranging from new letterheads to a new Web site.

The fund will also cover the salary of Assistant Dean of Planning Polly A. Steele, brought on board this summer to start the intensive search for the Institute's first group of research scholars, who will join Radcliffe next fall.

A committee including some former members of the Radcliffe Board of Trustees will begin meeting in October to start the search for the Institute's first permanent dean.

And after the merger, Radcliffe officials will step up fundraising efforts for the Institute. Officials have said they still hope to complete Radcliffe College's seven-year-old $100 million capital campaign.

Campaign totals currently stand at just over $80 million, but Radcliffe Board of Trustees Chairman Nancy-Beth G. Sheerr '71 has said Radcliffe hopes to finish the campaign by Dec. 31, when Harvard wraps up its own $2.1 billion capital campaign.

"Now that we have the I's dotted, we're hoping that we'll be able to increase the pace of fundraising over the next few months," Sheerr said. "It is a hefty goal. But it is our goal."