After nearly 30 years as a leading research center for women, the Bunting Institute is re-evaluating its relationship with Radcliffe, and its role in the advancement of women worldwide, according to top administrators.

Spurred by the recent appointments of Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson, Bunting Institute Director Florence C. Ladd and Assistant Director Linda M. Eisenmann, the multi-disciplinary center is reassessing the role it has played in helping women scholars over the years, and is preparing for changes that will affect women in the future.

Calling the institute a "dynamic institution," Wilson says the program can be "a very constructive force at the frontier of social change" by increasing the opportunities for women through instruction, research and service. "The Bunting will clearly play a critical role in Radcliffe's future," she says.

But administrators are not sure exactly what that role will be. In particular, they say, the institute needs to define better its relationship with undergraduates, its funding priorities and examine how well it fulfills its role as a resource for women pursuing careers as professors.

Founded in 1961 by then-Radcliffe President Mary Ingraham Bunting, the institute was intended to fight what Bunting called the "climate of unexpectation" facing American women. The stated goal of the center was to enable women who had given up their careers for marriage or other reasons to have a chance to return to academic pursuits.

But as the women's movement progressed, other universities and funding agencies started to offer continuing education programs for women. As a result, administrators say, the Bunting Institute began to reach out specifically to women who had achieved distinction in their careers. Over time, the institute gradually became a center devoted largely to helping women advance in academia or the arts.

"Radcliffe realized another need no one was addressing, a place for scholars at a critical time in their careers," says Wilson.

With its reputation and resources, Radcliffe officials say the institute is well-suited to meet the needs of women who will comprise a growing portion of the academic population in the 1990s.

Today, the 40 to 45 women each year who are named Bunting fellows pursue subjects ranging from public policy to biochemistry to film-making. Fellows are provided with offices or studio space and have access to the University's libraries and other facilities. About half also receive what Ladd calls a "modest" stipend of approximately $20,000.

Although the fellowships go to women in a wide range of careers, many Bunting fellows see their year at the institute as a step on the path to a tenured faculty post. Many of the 43 current fellows are junior professors who hope to follow previous Bunting fellows into lifetime teaching positions at universities around the nation.

Of the 23 tenured women now in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), four were Bunting fellows, as were Education School Dean Patricia A. Graham and FAS Associate Dean for Academic Planning Phyllis Keller, two of the University's top women administrators.

At a time when many people are concerned about the lack of women professors at universities in the United States, administrators say the Bunting Institute provides a much-needed service to women by giving them the chance to complete work that may earn them promotions to the senior faculty level.

"We don't have true co-education in this country," Ladd says, "not until we have a gender balance, equal numbers of men and women represented on the faculties and administrations of colleges and universities in this country."

"In academia, it's easy to think that the job's been done," says Elizabeth R. McKinsey, the former director of the institute who left last July to become dean of Carleton College. "There certainly are more women, particularly if you look at assistant professor ranks. It looks heartening, but that's misleading. If you look at associate professor and professor ranks, it's still quite sobering."

At Harvard, women make up just 8 percent of the tenured faculty and 28 percent of the junior faculty. The numbers are similar at other institutions of higher education.