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Some worry that the ties are confusing for fund-raising prospects and students
WHEN NEW STUDENTS take the Harvard tour, they start at Byerly Hall, on the Radcliffe College Quadrangle. For most of them, their first visit to Radcliffe's intimate campus is also their last.
As Harvard University this fall celebrates the 25th anniversary of women's residence in its freshman dormitories, many people are re-examining its complicated relationship with Radcliffe, a college that has been women's gateway to Harvard since 1879.
Radcliffe, which is across the street from Harvard, is separately incorporated, with its own governing board, fund-raising operation, and continuing-education programs. The two institutions share an alumnae base. And undergraduate women at Harvard are still admitted by Radcliffe; their diplomas bear the seals of both institutions. A Harvard official likens the admissions practice to admitting black students through the university's institute on African-American research.
'SECOND CLASS STATUS?'
Marlyn McGrath Lewis, director of admissions for both Harvard and Radcliffe, acknowledges that some women are bemused after they apply to Harvard but are accepted by Radcliffe. "I heard from one student who thought at first that Radcliffe was a special program or a preliminary college experience designed for women who hadn't had good preparation in high school," says Ms. Lewis, herself a proud "Cliffie" who says she owes much in her life "to the chance to come to Harvard" that Radcliffe provided. "We often get those questions: `Is Radcliffe different? Do I have second-class status?'"
To many people here, the admissions process is a custom with no practical effect. But like so much else on these campuses, it lives on by tradition.
Radcliffe began as the Harvard Annex, and Harvard professors would cross Harvard Yard to deliver lectures to women. In 1894, Radcliffe-named for an English noblewoman whose gift in 1643 created Harvard's first scholarship fund-was chartered by Massachusetts to "furnish instruction and the opportunities of collegiate life to women and to promote their higher education." By 1947, nearly all of Harvard's courses were coeducational, and in 1963, Radcliffe ceased awarding its own degrees. Coeducational living was approved in 1971, and joint admissions began in 1975. Then, in a 1977 agreement referred to in jest as the "merger/non-merger," Radcliffe delegated to Harvard its responsibility for the...