Radcliffe Evaluation Calls for Changes

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study may be looking at sweeping changes to many of its main programs, after receiving an evaluative report from a committee comprised of higher education experts.

The 51-page document says that Radcliffe should centralize and streamline its many offerings, keeping only those programs that align with the Institute's academic mission of studying "women, gender and society."

The report calls for a "fundamental refram[ing]" of the Public Policy Center, noting that the center should analyze rather than develop public policy.

Evaluators also wrote that the Institute "should undertake a full review of its [educational programs]...with a view toward identifying ones that should be preserved in some form..."

Radcliffe's educational programs include varied offerings in the fields of creative arts, liberal arts, leadership and professional development, landscape design and landscape design history. The Radcliffe Publishing Course, perhaps the best known program, will be moving to Columbia University next fall.

Tamar March, director of educational programs at the Institute, and former dean of students when Radcliffe was still responsible for undergraduate women, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Paula Rayman, director of the Public Policy Center, did not return

repeated calls from The Crimson.

Caroline W. Bynum '82, chair of the evaluation committee and University professor of history at Columbia University, said she expected the report's "radical" nature to rattle some people at Radcliffe.

"I realize that some of the things that were recommended will be difficult for some of the people at Radcliffe because some radical change is envisioned, but I hope that the existing Radcliffe could find a way of pulling together and feeling that an essential part of its mission is enhanced by this," Bynum said.

The report is candidly critical of certain parts of Radcliffe hile calling for a streamlining that would rally Radcliffe around an academic mission.

"Activities should be preserved or initiated only if they serve the central purposes of the Institute at the standard of quality required for an institute for advanced study," one portion of the report reads.

But Dean of the Institute Drew Gilpin Faust says that she does not intend to make radical changes to Radcliffe in the near future.

"We're going to look very carefully at how these various parts of Radcliffe College fit with Radcliffe Institute, but we have no plans to eliminate any of the existing units at the present time," Faust said.

The report makes no specific mention of how the Radcliffe Institute might involve itself with undergraduates.

It does, however, suggest that the Institute focus its efforts on faculty appointments and the fellows program.

The committee also suggested that the Institute make better use of its

many buildings, and review how staff and resources are allocated to

different parts of Radcliffe.

Faust, who has been dean since January, said last week she had not

heard of any negative reactions in response to the report's proposals.

Both she and former Acting Dean Mary Maples Dunn, whom Faust replaced,

worked closely with the 11-member evaluation committee.

Bynum said the Institute gave each committee member a cash gift for their work. Dunn, however, told The Crimson last fall that the review would be done as a professional courtesy, at no charge to Radcliffe.

The committee met in Cambridge twice, once in September and once in December, and often worked through conference calls and e-mails.

Both Faust and Bynum stressed the report's role in setting Radcliffe's intellectual agenda for the coming years.

Bynum added Radcliffe will need the support of its alumnae, as well as the University, to realize its full potential.

"This can be the final realization of the promise Radcliffe has always had," Bynum said. "I hope all of Harvard commits itself to making this institution succeed."