Six student organizations--including Women Appealing for Change, the group seeking gender equality in final clubs--received a total of more than $700 in grants from the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) last week.

RUS, which receives its funds from a five dollar fee collected from every woman undergraduate, awards $3000 each semester to groups and projects benefiting women's issues on campus.

"[The projects] tend to organize around political issues or the arts," said RUS co-President Deborah J. Wexler '95.

At the first of the semester's three grant meetings, which was held last Friday, RUS distributed $740. The largest grant, $300, went to the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association, which will co-sponsor two one-act plays pertaining to women's issues.

Other sizable grants included $200 awarded to Lighthouse Magazine and $100 for an advertising campaign for Women Appealing for Change.

The main criterion for grant selection is a specific connection to women's issues on the Harvard-Radcliffe campus, RUS officials said.

However, RUS has become more diverse in recent years, in recognition of the diversity of issues and viewpoints of women on campus, said Maura H. Swan '94, RUS co-president.

"We don't give the grants based on any particular ideologies of members of the groups," Swan said.