On Labor Day, Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson told her undergraduate audience at the Women's Leadership Conference, "for us at the moment at Radcliffe, we're exploring our relationship with Harvard."

It's been a long moment.

While Radcliffe enjoyed the international publicity from its Publishing Course's "100 Best Novels" list this summer, its leaders continued to mull the future of the 119-year-old institution in secret negotiations with top officials from Harvard University.

A conclusion to this saga is unlikely soon, since Radcliffe's leaders have been forced to perform a precarious juggling act: institutional planning in one hand, media relations in the other.

Radcliffe officials have scrambled to explain their "strategic planning process" ever since The Boston Globe alarmed alumnae that their alma mater faced downgrading within the University community, about to lose its status as a college.

Wilson tried to quell alumnae concerns about the college's future in June, noting in an Alumnae Day speech that the college is strong and that "our eyes are squarely on the prize of women and men in effective partnership."

But recognizing that the lifeblood of Radcliffe is its alumnae base, and realizing that base had been first ignored, then alienated and finally betrayed by vague press releases, Wilson is now working to cater specifically to the constituency that erupted in dismay this spring.

This week the president will announce a major nationwide tour scheduled for next month, unbeknownst to many Radcliffe regional representatives as of last week, in which she will formally solicit alumnae opinion on the college's future in a 10-city trip.

The top-level talks have proceeded, even as Wilson made spent much of her summer vacationing in Maine, with Radcliffe's stake often in the hands of Nancy-Beth G. Sheerr '71, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Sheerr's board, as Wilson told alumnae in June, makes the final decisions about Radcliffe's institutional status.

It is a delicate balance, and Wilson and Sheerr must both appease apprehensive alumnae and negotiate a multi-million dollar deal to realize the next step in Radcliffe's murky metamorphosis.

The Vision Thing

The ultimate goal, several sources have told The Crimson, is to recreate Radcliffe as a research institute under the University's umbrella, dedicated to the study of interdisciplinary, cross-cultural issues of gender and society.

The new Radcliffe--under one proposal called the Radcliffe Institutes for Advanced Study--would focus its energies on cultivating collaboration, both between its own institutes (the Murray Research Center, the Bunting Institute and the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute) and with the Harvard faculties, along themes of inquiry from the media to human development to economics.

Several programs which examine scholarshipthrough "the gender lens"--including the Committeeon Degrees in Women's Studies in the Faculty ofArts and Sciences and the new Women and PublicPolicy Program at the Kennedy School--would gain acohesive hub, controlling academic overlap withinthe University. The move would also further theRudenstinian legacy of fostering interfacultyinitiatives.

A new institute would boast visiting fellows, acadre of scholars, new courses and rejuvenatedresources--in a perfect world.