In part due to its novelty, the Institute received a good deal of media attention early on. Bunting-Smith herself was featured in a fall 1961 Time Magazine cover story when the first 21 artists and scholars at the Institute were granted their first awards, each of up to $3,000.

Donovan points to the quality of Institute fellows past as the key characteristic that lead to rapid acceptance in the academic world.

"They were such marvelous people," she says. "Any wondering whether it was going to work faded quickly."

Today, 37 years later, 40 Bunting Fellows are selected each year and each is given up to $33,000 to cover all expenses involved in resuming their studies, including the cost of moving to Cambridge and finding new homes. Despite this vast increase in award allotments, Rita Nakashima Brock, current director of the Bunting Institute, says the Institute has not changed that much in its 37 years.

"It was remarkably clear in its original mission," she says. "It has expanded some, but hasn't changed that much."

The only change she can point to is a greater professionalization and standardization of the fellowships. Whereas scholars once had to stipulate all sorts of specific monetary allocations, today the stipends are granted with less scrutiny.

According to former Harvard president Nathan M. Pusey '28, who worked with Bunting-Smith from 1960 to 1971, the Institute was representative of her vision of Radcliffe.

"She wanted Radcliffe to be a separate institution, and to become a senior institution," Pusey says. "We had similar ideas about Radcliffe."

Separate But Unequal

These ideas led to a litany of notable and lasting accomplishments during Bunting-Smith's tenure as president. Early on, she made clear that Harvard's conception of a separate but equal education for Radcliffe women was not truly pro- viding an equivalent learning mechanism for herstudents.

"She recognized that women were not beingtreated on a fair basis with men," Donovanrecalls. "They paid exactly the same tuition, buthad no houses, no masters and couldn't use Lamont[Library]."

One element that Bunting-Smith saw lacking inthe Radcliffe education was the Harvard-styleHouse system. "'Cliffies" at the time did notenjoy the close relationships with Faculty andstaff that Harvard men did by living in such closequarters.

To remedy the situation, Bunting-Smith set up aseparate House system at the Radcliffe Quadrangle.She combined the eight dorms into three Houses,North, South and East, and then built a fourthHouse on the West side of the Quad, later to berenamed Currier.

"She painted the doors of the houses differentcolors," Donovan recalls of Bunting-Smith's quirkystyle. "Some people saw that as silly, but it wasvery visible and sort of fun."

With the construction of Houses camestructured, localized intellectual communities newto Radcliffe. After some initial consternation,gradually more and more professors becameconvinced that the Radcliffe House system wasauthentic in its nature and agreed to becomemasters and scholars-in-residence.

A Multi-Purpose Building