When Radcliffe administrators announced the restructuring of the school two months ago, they hailed the changes as a refocusing of effort and funding towards undergraduates.

But the undergraduates who administrators say will benefit from the changes don't necessarily agree with the plans.

Several Radcliffe student leaders are protesting some aspects of the reorganization, most notably the impending dismissal of the popular dean of Radcliffe College, Philippa A. Bovet.

Some of those students also object to the elimination of Bovet's position, saying the move signals a shift away from Radcliffe's original undergraduate focus.

And the students almost unanimously agree that they were unfairly cut out of the decision-making process that led to the changes.

Meanwhile, a number of Radcliffe officials acknowledge that the reorganization is positive on the whole, but say they're upset about the firing of nine workers at Radcliffe Career Services (RCS).

For their part, Radcliffe administrators say the reorganization will improve the college's bureaucratic efficiency, allowing the school to direct more of its resources toward undergraduates.

The move also makes sense from an educational point of view, administrators say. The reorganization will allow Radcliffe to keep up with changing educational currents and meet the demands of next century's scholars.

A New Structure

The reorganization of Radcliffe was unveiled by President Linda S. Wilson on November 14 and approved by Radcliffe's Board of Trustees.

The restructuring, which will be implemented over the next four years, effectively divides Radcliffe's programs into two umbrella groups.

The first group, the Radcliffe Educational Programs (REP), will include all undergraduate extracurricular programs and all post-baccalaureate and graduate programs currently offered by the school. These programs include the Radcliffe Seminars and the Office of the Arts for Harvard and Radcliffe.

The second new group, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies (RIAS), will unite the College's Bunting Institute, the Murray Research Center, the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America and the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute.

Senior administrators say that the new setup will allow Radcliffe to organize its services more efficiently.

Wilson describes Radcliffe's current setup as "a set of very successful but disparate programs."