Ginger L. Mackay-Smith '78 was named the College's assistant dean for coeducation last week by Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57.

Mackay-Smith, who served this fall as special assistant to Jewett and secretary to the Administrative Board, will combine those duties with her new responsibilities focusing on women's issues.

Mackay-Smith, whose career as an administrator with the College began as a proctor of first-years in 1984, said she will work closely with Radcliffe College to insure that Harvard and Radcliffe coordinate their services to female undergraduates.

"Radcliffe has been so active and forceful in championing the concerns and interests of women," she said. "Harvard has too, but...I want to make sure that my efforts are geared towards having Harvard and Radcliffe work together towards the same goal."

Dean of Radcliffe College Philip-pa Bovet said she is convinced that Mackay will do an excellent job, like her predecessor Janet A. Viggiani who gave up the post to travel and attend law school.

"I am thrilled with the appointment," Bovet said. "We work well together."

Bovet said Mackay-Smith's undergraduate experiences at Harvard and Radcliffe would "enrich her views because she loves both Radcliffe and Harvard. Ginger will bring an added dimension from that experience."

As a former student of both Harvard and Radcliffe, and a woman with a long-standing interest in women's issues, Mackay-Smith said she plans to create new opportunities for involving undergraduate women in Radcliffe College.

In discussing her days as an undergraduate, Mackay-Smith described "a different era, the tail-end of the Vietnam war, during a lot of political activism."

"Assault and domestic violence is a very important issue now, and one that undergraduates weren't aware of in my day," Mackay-Smith said. "The College has come light-years since then."

Mackay-Smith said she will meet with Bovet next week to plan Harvard and Radcliffe's joint agenda.

But she professed a "don't mess with success" attitude towards programs supervised by her predecessor Viggiani.

"I will try to keep the programs that Janet Viggiani started," Mackay-Smith said. "A hallmark of her work was that she worked side by side with students. I am impressed with the work that students have been doing.