When Radcliffe College is the topic in question, it seems as if no one can get a straight answer. While prospective first-years and their parents who attended yesterday's "President's Welcome" learned about Cambridge's glorious weather and the College's amazing Faculty, the status of Radcliffe remained an enigma.

In her address to the packed Science Center B auditorium, Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson called the relationship between Harvard and Radcliffe "peculiar."

Don't try to reason by analogy," Wilson said. "Know that it works."

"You get both of us, and you get that Harvard University degree--which is so very important," she said.

Although Wilson did enumerate several initiatives and partnerships that undergraduates can enjoy under Radcliffe's purview, many said they left the "Welcome" feeling more confused than welcomed.

After one attendee raised a question about the nature of undergraduate diplomas--a point of serious debate this year among Undergraduate Council members--Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine laughed off the "cosmic" query, telling the crowd that "you can all have as many signatures as you want."

And when prospective first-year Vasugi V. Ganeshananthan questioned the presidential panel about Radcliffe's changing relationship with Harvard, neither leader could provide a concrete answer, although Rudenstine did hint at impending restructuring.

The relationship "has been changing for the past 100 years, and it's very likely to change yet again," Rudenstine said. "We constantly talk."

Rudenstine quoted Mae West as he chuckled about recent rumblings regardingRadcliffe's evolution: "it's better to be lookedover than to be overlooked."

Wilson invoked another literary allusion toqualify Rudenstine's: "My death has been greatlyexaggerated," she quipped, comparing Radcliffe toMark Twain, who made and comment as he read hisown obituary in the newspaper.

Ganeshananthan said she felt the presidents haddodged her question. And pre-frosh aren't the onlyones who say they have been given the run-around.

The Radcliffe College Alumnae Association(RCAA) drafted a letter to the Radcliffe Board ofTrustees last week , requesting more details aboutthe board's secret planning sessions for thefuture of Radcliffe.

Jane Tweksbury, president of the RadcliffeCollege Alumnae Association (RCAA), declined tocomment yesterday on whether Wilson or the Boardof Trustees had complied with the RCAA's demandfor information.

Wilson said yesterday that she "listened veryhard" to alumnae concerns at an RCAA meeting lastweek, and added that all will have a chance tovoice their concerns--at an unspecified time