Lewis declined to sign the bill.

"The revised bill would have had all the same implementation difficulties without addressing the basic question lying behind the original bill," he says.

According to Lewis, any changes to women's diplomas would require a renegotiation of the 1977 agreement in which Radcliffe ceded most of its responsibilities for undergraduate diplomas to Harvard.

The Student Voice

If students on both sides of the issue agree on anything, it is that the diploma debate brought to light current student opinion about Radcliffe.

"I think the debate showed that this was an issue that was very salient and very important to students," says Olivia Verma '99, an original sponsor of the bill. "Once it was in the Crimson headlines, the administration realized that their discussions, which had been very silent and tentative, were discussions that students wanted out loud and wanted to be a part of."

Students who opposed the bill say they are convinced that part of the bill's original purpose was to achieve a conclusive student consensus in favor of the removal of Radcliffe--a consensus which they say bill supporters failed to build.

"I think Dean Lewis thought he was going to have this great mandate from the student body that he could use to put additional pressure on fundraising from women alumnae and whatever kind of negotiations he's in to redefine Radcliffe," says Cheuse.

Lewis and bill supporters both vehemently deny that Lewis was involved in the bill's development.

"I think this is the first time I have been accused of seeking a student mandate on any issue," Lewis quips. "I responded to what a U.C. member brought to me, just as I have done with other proposed or enacted U.C. legislation."

"I think [Lewis has] been very unfairly portrayed. I think people have imputed motive to him that hasn't existed," Barber says. "He showed me some encouragement, but he shows a lot of people encouragement."

Still, bill opponents say the debate demonstrates that campus opinion favors Radcliffe. They say this was evident from the sheer numbers of Radcliffe supporters who came out of the woodwork to fight for maintaining the difference between men's and women's diplomas.

"In terms of the actual night of the voting, it showed that support for Radcliffe is a lot stronger then anyone would have believed in the first place," says Radcliffe Union of Students President Amanda Bagneris '99.

However, Barber claims the council vote failed to accurately represent student opinion.

"I'm less convinced that the U.C. is a representative body of the opinion on campus after this debate," she says. "It doesn't seem that the majority of people here think that women should be different from men officially at the College."