Radcliffe College, which for many years has provided women with a way to receive an education from Harvard University’s faculty members, will merge into Harvard, administrators from both institutions announced Tuesday. The impending change has been rumored for more than a year.
Under a tentative plan approved by both institutions, Radcliffe will no longer serve undergraduates. It will, however, continue as an academic institute under Harvard’s umbrella. Critics have complained that it was inefficient for Radcliffe to maintain a separate administration and fund-raising office, since it has not been an independent undergraduate institution for two decades.
Radcliffe’s assets, which total $200-million, will be transferred to Harvard. However, most of that money -- $150-million -- will go toward a new interdisciplinary institute, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The rest of the college’s endowment will go toward undergraduate financial aid.
Radcliffe administrators point out that as an institute, Radcliffe will have more money than it had as a college. In addition to the $150-million from Radcliffe’s endowment, Harvard will kick in an equal amount.
The institute, which will be open to women and men, will focus on the study of women, gender, and society, and will also offer non-degree educational programs. The academic planning for the institute is set to begin this summer.
Radcliffe’s president for the past 10 years, Linda S. Wilson, announced Tuesday that she will step down and begin a sabbatical.
“For generations Radcliffe has promoted women’s higher education, studied women’s lives, and enhanced their opportunities to make significant contributions in the world,” Ms. Wilson said. “This new incarnation of Radcliffe within Harvard will extend our reach while continuing in a new form our historic mission and community of alumnae, alumni, and friends.”
Radcliffe was created in 1894 to give women access to a Harvard education. Harvard professors crossed Harvard Yard to teach the Radcliffe students until 1947, when classes became coeducational.
Since 1977, Harvard has assumed full responsibility for educating undergraduate women. Women apply to Radcliffe, but are educated by Harvard. They receive degrees from both institutions.
Miriam M. Pachacki, who graduated from Radcliffe in 1938, was surprised to learn of the merger. She called it “the best possible solution for Radcliffe.”
“We’ve tried to maintain a separate college for so long when it has not existed,” she said.
“The real mission of Radcliffe College from the beginning was to make it possible for women to get a Harvard education, and they’re getting it,” she added.
Key elements of the agreement were approved by the governing boards of both institutions. Final details have not yet been approved.
A number of questions remained unresolved, including the future of Radcliffe’s alumnae association. The school does not plan any immediate layoffs.
Radcliffe’s renowned library, the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, will be an integral part of the new Radcliffe Institute.
Appointed as interim leader of the Institute was Mary Maples Dunn, currently director of the Schlesinger Library and a former president of Smith College. The permanent dean, once named, will join the deans of Harvard’s nine faculties in leading and managing the university.
Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine said the merger “brings together the intellectual, human, and financial resources of both institutions in a way that addresses their long-term future.”
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