Alongside Harvard College, to hear the Admissions Office tell it, exists a unique community of women and for women in the form of Radcliffe College and its student government, the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS).

Women students, according to the 1992-93 Harvard-Radcliffe Register, enjoy "the benefits of a co-educational experience while being members of the Radcliffe community, which is dedicated to promoting women's participation in all areas of life."

But the reality is a little less tidy.

Far from being a cohesive community, Radcliffe today attempts to represent a wide range of women's viewpoints and lifestyles, with what many students say is mixed success.

For some, Radcliffe means garden parties and graduates in Laura Ashley dresses; for others, outspoken feminists wearing hats with the legend "FCS"--for "Final Clubs Suck."

In fact, the way in which the college is most representative of women is that it too is trying to decide when to assume traditional female roles and when to challenge the system.

This tension is usually resolved in the direction of accommodation rather than protest by Radcliffe's top officials, including President Linda S. Wilson. "Society changes slowly....You can go a little bit faster than society but you can't go too much faster," says Wilson.

This attitude on the part of college officials has sometimes led to strained relations with RUS, which has histor- ically been more openly political. Over thepast 20 years RUS has, for instance, repeatedlydemanded that Radcliffe adopt stances againstfinal clubs and in favor of a women's center, onlyto meet with polite administrative resistance.

In 1990, after Wilson's first year in office,RUS members complained of problems working withRadcliffe bureaucrats who they said distrustedthem as "some kind of fringe radical group."

In the two years that followed, Radcliffeofficials more than once suggested that RUS didnot represent the spectrum of women at thecollege, but only a particular group with narrowlydefined interests.

"It's very hard to be representative of astudent body that is relatively large and as richand as varied as this," Radcliffe Dean PhilipaBovet, the group's advisor, says. "I think [RUS]is perceived as, and at times has been,representative of a narrower group."

Certainly, RUS--whose active membershipconsists of whomever attends its weeklymeetings--has no built-in structures to make itaccountable to the campus as a whole.

"It is a very self-selected group of women,"says Minna M. Jarvenpaa '93, the group'sco-president.

Radcliffe officials have also questioned RUS'smethods, which have at times been far moreconfrontational and political than those employedby the college.

Jarvenpaa said Bovet wants to make RUS workwithin the system. "She would like the RadcliffeUnion of Students to really interact with both theHarvard and the Radcliffe administrations and makeinitiatives."

Sorting Things Out

But in the last year, Radcliffe and its studentgovernment seem to have begun to find some commonground.

"There has been some miscommunication going onduring the past couple of years," says Jarvenpaa."Right now we've sorted out a lot of things."

This sorting out has taken place as RUS hasmade a deliberate effort to broaden itsconstituency and to tone down some of itsactivities, in line with the administration's lessconfrontational philosophy.

One student formerly involved with RUS, who didnot want to be identified, says, "People whoconsider themselves more radical in RUS feelRadcliffe is trying to tell them, `Don't be soradical. Be more inclusive of all women, even ifthey don't call themselves feminists.'"

Administrators like Bovet view this trendpositively. "My feeling is that [RUS] is beingsuccessful in its outreach," Bovet says, thoughshe adds, "There's always more work to be done."

However, the student, who says she left RUSwhen she "realized what petty issues came up" atits meetings, says that it remains difficult topin down the group's ideological stand at anygiven time.

"RUS is kind of stuck between two things. Ithink back and forth it would be a little moreradical, a little less radical, a little moreconfrontative, a little less confrontative," shesays.

This vacillation seems a good enough compromisefor Radcliffe. "We're eager for RUS, since it is astudent organization for all women, for theirportfolio to respond to the interests of allwomen," Wilson says. "They'll probably do itsequentially by having more than one kind ofprogram."

RUS and Radcliffe have also now straightenedout some past disagreement over financial matters,according to the group's officers. The formalbasis of the relationship between the college andRUS is financial, since the group is supported byterm bill dues from female students.

RUS co-president Olivia D. Williams '93 saysthe group has begun to keep clearer records oftheir financial activities. "We've been reallyworking on documenting things," she says.

Radcliffe officials have in the past criticizednot only RUS's accounting procedures but the wayit chooses to distribute its money, Williams says."They say we're only using our money to supportcertain causes," Williams says.

Williams says this is not true, pointing outthat the group has given grants to both Alliancefor Life and Students for Choice. "We can't letour own points of view determine what's right forwomen on campus," she says.

RUS co-secretary Melissa S. Weininger '95agrees. "We give money to any one who has acohesive plan for helping women."

Bovet says she is pleased by the revisions inthe group's accounting procedures, including a newprovision that groups must have been active withRUS for some period before receiving funding.

Transforming Society?

Radcliffe's work with RUS has been directed atbringing the student group under the first of whatVice President for College Relations Robin Jacobycalls its "three umbrellas": education, researchand public policy.

In each of these three areas, Jacoby and hercolleagues say they hope to help move women'sissues into the mainstream. "This is not anadversarial approach," Wilson says. "This is arecognition that society will benefit from aneffective partnership between men and womenfocused on important issues."

Wilson says she is particularly excited aboutthe addition of a public policy component--throughfellowships, colloquia, and research--toRadcliffe's work.

Wilson comments that young women must confrontsocietal pressures when making decision about howto balance career and family, pressures which mendo not face to a comparable degree.

"As women move against that, some mayover-correct, and that may make it hard for menwho are trying to figure this out," Wilson says."Ground is shifting. It's not shifting veryrapidly, but it's still disconcerting."

Wilson says Radcliffe's aim is "to transformsociety so that society will value women andaccommodate them."

But for now, it seems that Radcliffe is the onedoing most of the accommodating. The college'sofficials are notoriously hard to pin down oncontroversial campus issues, a fact that has leftmany a female student activist dissatisfied.

Take final clubs, for instance. In 1985,Harvard officially dissociated itself from theCollege's nine all-male clubs. In 1987, Lisa J.Schkolnick '88 filed a discrimination complaintagainst one of them with the state ofMassachusetts. Over the years, anti-final clubagitation--most recently, by RUS--has waxed andwaned.

But Radcliffe has never taken any strongposition or official action on the final clubsissue. Even today, two of the college's top threeofficials say they are unsure about the clubs.

While Bovet says she has "a hard timeunderstanding the value of exclusivity," and that"it's [the clubs'] loss," Jacoby says, "My senseis that it would be better if clubs were open toothers, but I don't really know."

Wilson responds even more adamantly, saying,"There's not any need for Radcliffe to have aposition on things which aren't ourresponsibility. We don't issue positions onthings. We are an educational institution."

Radcliffe in fact disapproved of the work RUSdid last year against the clubs, Jarvenpaa says.Jarvenpaa says that this opposition was based onthe notion that RUS could not be representative ofall women when taking a position on issue that iscontroversial within the student body.

"It was difficult for us to claim that we wererepresentative of all the women on campus,"Jarvenpaa says. "That made RUS more political in alot of ways and not necessarily representative inthe way that we are now."

But Jarvenpaa says RUS has since changed itsapproach because it considered the battle futile."We just felt that we were expending a lot ofenergy on something that wasn't going very far orthat didn't have concrete results."

Mutual Misperceptions

While student activists say they believe theRadcliffe establishment frequently fails tounderstand their agenda, the college's officialsclaim that many problems exist only in studentmisperceptions.

For instance, students have been known tocomplain about Women's Studies' status as acommittee rather than a Faculty of Arts andSciences department. The assumption is that thesituation reflects a lack of respect and fundingfor the subject as an academic field.

But administrators say there are a number ofgood reasons for Women's Studies to continue on asa committee--from normal budget limitations to thebenefits of interdisciplinary work.

"That's totally a Harvard issue," Jacoby says,but adds, "I don't know the exact numbers but ifthere are 500 Women's Studies programs across thecountry, 490 are programs or committees ratherthan full-fledged departments. The advantage ofhaving it as a committee is that it means that allthe faculty also have a base in a department."

And though Wilson speaks of the ground-breakingrole of Radcliffe's new graduate program inWomen's Studies, she says students should notassume the undergraduate concentration in Women'sStudies is "less valued" than other academicprograms. "That would not be an accuratereflection of where Harvard is."

But the gap in understanding of the status ofWomen's Studies is partly indicative of acontinued communication problem between Radcliffeand its presumed constituents.

Radcliffe's efforts to reach out toundergraduates--including increasedundergraduate-faculty research grants and therevival of the Radcliffe Convocation inSeptember--have succeeded, to a limited degree.

But even the most optimistic about the role ofRadcliffe in the lives of undergraduates speakwistfully of the possibility of students' makingthe most of Radcliffe's resources.

"For those students who find Radcliffe, most ofthem are very glad to make the connection. Manystudents say they wish they had found Radcliffesooner," Jacoby says.CrimsonIsabel M. Dedring