Since the beginning of time--or at least since 1879--the relationship between Harvard University and Radcliffe College has been in a state of flux.

Even after the landmark 1977 deal in which Radcliffe achieved equal access to Harvard's classrooms and facilities for female undergraduates, somehow there was more confusion, not less.

With a capital campaign competing with Harvard's, periodic squabblings over students and buildings and constant public scrutiny and bewilderment over the school's role and responsibilities, Radcliffe suffers from an image problem.

There are now plans on the table to clear all this up.

After nearly a year of internal "strategic planning" by Radcliffe administrators and discussions with top Harvard officials about the future of the Harvard-Radcliffe relationship, sources have told The Crimson that Radcliffe will likely restructure itself as a research institute for the study of women, gender and society allied with Harvard--ceding all official undergraduate ties to Harvard College.

Sources say the leaders of the two sibling institutions have nodded to an "agreement in principle," but details surrounding Radcliffe's finances and alumnae still need ironing out.

Indeed, Radcliffe--funded largely on the whim of alumnae and by liberal endowment payouts--may not look like a good buy for Harvard, whose scrupulous investment strategies have solidified its claim as the world's richest university.

The proposed elimination of Radcliffe's role in undergraduate life will also alienate many female graduates and students, who see the institution abandoning a spirit cultivated by more than a century of bravely facing the glass ceiling.

But both institutions' top-level leaders see the restructuring's effect on undergraduates and alumnae as secondary to a larger mission: to join to create the premier hub of scholarship to explore interdisciplinary, cross-cultural issues of gender and society.

For Radcliffe's Board of Trustees and the President and Fellows of Harvard College--both of whom are currently weighing the benefits and the liabilities of a merger--it's decision time.

Devising a Deal

Last fall, the leaders of Radcliffe's Schlesinger Library, Bunting Institute, Murray Research Center and Public Policy Institute began holding regular meetings to discuss ways for the often-insular arms of the college to collaborate.

But Radcliffe is looking to cast a wider net of partnership as well.

While Radcliffe officials have spent weeks dodging queries about reported strategic talks with Harvard--prompting public displays of frustration from alumnae leaders--The Crimson has learned that Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine and Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson, Harvard Corporation members Hanna H. Gray and D. RonaldDaniel, Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67, Dean ofthe Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, Radcliffe Chairmanof the Board of Trustees NancyBeth G. Sheerr '71and Radcliffe-commissioned consultants AnthonyKnerr and Jim McAvoy have all been involved indiscussions surrounding the future of theHarvard-Radcliffe relationship.

The new Radcliffe--under one proposal calledthe Radcliffe Institutes for Advanced Study--wouldfocus its energies on cultivating collaboration inacademia, both among its institutes and with theHarvard faculties--along themes of inquiry fromthe media to human development to economics.