Aside from the issues the Strauch Committee is dealing with, the corporate aspects of merger come up for review next spring as well, and Horner will be participating in a series of meetings starting this summer to discuss the merger renewal. "There's a wide range of possibilities," she says. "We could dissolve the Radcliffe board of trustees in exchange for places on the Corporation (now all male). Or we could make Radcliffe a tub within Harvard University. Or we could merge some areas and not others, or work together cooperatively. But I hope after a serious review that we should have the strength of character to dissolve ourselves if that's the best way or, of course, not to if that's best. The difficult part is implementing the idea of equality. You can't undo centuries of attitudes overnight."

Horner considers her deanship--she is dean of Radcliffe College under Rosovsky as well as being Radcliffe's president--crucial to the implementation of equality, because it brings her in close touch with the process of educating the women Radcliffe has admitted. "It's not enough to just admit students and then let the Faculty of Arts and Sciences take them over," she says. "When I was appointed I asked that my deanship be Faculty of Arts and Sciences-related. I sit on the Faculty Council; sitting with the policy-making board of the Faculty is very important. I sit in at resources and planning meetings of the Faculty too.

"It's not that these people are out to get Radcliffe, but sometimes it's benign neglect. I remember one meeting where some of the people didn't know what the tuition for Radcliffe students was--they thought it was thought it was different from the tuition Harvard students have to pay. I told them it was the same. It's important to have somebody there at these meetings to highlight these questions."

Horner's shift from the specific to the general this year comes partly because she was so specific in her duties last year, when she was learning the ropes of the job. She came to Harvard in 1969 after getting her B.A. at Bryn Mawr (she turned down Radcliffe) and her doctorate at the University of Michigan. She taught a few undergraduate courses and had something of a following in her field because of her studies in women's fear of success, but at the time of her appointment she had little experience with Harvard administrative work and was not particularly well known around the University.

"I'm much less involved this year in the direct processes of running Radcliffe," she says. "Last year I was much more involved in admissions because I wanted to learn about it. Having satisfied myself with the ability of the people involved, I began to turn my attention to the institute and where we're going in general. I had a feeling at first that I had to understand the whole process from admission to leaving.

"I wear three hats--as president, a dean, and a faculty member [she is associate professor of Psychology and Social Relations]. I'm still teaching now; it's pure insanity. I was really led to think this would be a half-time job, but if you take it seriously and ask hard questions, it takes more time. But I really am primarily a teacher and researcher, though I promised to stay in this job through next spring, when the merger expires." After which, if she leaves her post then, the president of Radcliffe College will have to start worrying about getting tenure