Last month, Robert Packwood (R-Ore.) announced his resignation from the Senate in tears, proclaiming his love for the nation and for Congress.

This month, the Washington Post reporter responsible for breaking the story of the sexual harassment charges against Packwood will come to Radcliffe to finish a book on power in the nation's capital.

Florence Graves is one of the 10 women who have been named Radcliffe Public Policy Fellows for 1995-96. The group will focus on economic issues facing women, including gender equity in the workplace and the impact of poverty.

Graves' book examines "the balance of power in Washington, D.C. and how power is often sexualized," said Angela Rushing Place, a staff assistant at the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute.

The group of women will lecture at Radcliffe and research individual projects during this academic year.

"This year's fellows reflect the Institute's commitment to bring together a cross-disciplinary group--including scholars, journalists, government officials and business and labor leaders--in order to shape policy on important social, economic and political issues," said Paula M. Rayman, director of the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute, in a press release.

According to the Public Policy Institute, the fellowship program was established in 1993 "to engage women and men as full partners in shaping policy on important national, social and economic issues."

During their tenure at Radcliffe College, the fellows will contribute to Public Policy Institute publications and will also give at least one presentation on the field they are studying.

Two of the fellows, Fauzia Ahmed and Loretta Mclaughlin, are returning this week from the United Nations Fourth International Conference on Women.

Ahmed is a program coordinator for Oxfarn America and will spend the year "putting a book together on how empowering women in South- east Asia can help empower a community as a whole," said place.

McLaughlin is a columnist at the Boston Globe and will focus her research on health care reform and the international impact of AIDS.

"[The women's] participation at the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute this year will be of critical importance as we work toward our goal of full partnership between men and women in all aspects of policy arena," Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson said in the press release.

Each of the fellows has the option to work with students, Place said, and the College funds an undergraduate research program which allows many students to do research with the fellows each year.

Graves and Wendy Kaminer, who is a contributing editor at the Atlantic Monthly magazine, will be accepting undergraduates as research assistants this semester.

The Public Policy Institute also plans to begin a series of co-sponsored events with the Kennedy School in conjunction with their fellowship program. The first of these events, a health care conference on October 12, will feature fellows with a background in medicine and an interest in the future of health care reform in America.

Other fellows for 1995-96 include Eileen Applebaum, associate research director for the Washington based Economic Policy Institute; Lisa Dodson, senior research associate at the Health Institute of Tufts/New England Medical Center; Susan Eaton, a government consultant; Pamela Fraser-Abder, associate professor at New York University; Sharland Trotter, a psychologist and former editor of the American Psychological Association Monitor magazine; and Kirsten Wever, director of the German American Project of the International Industrial Relations Association