The Information-Hungry

No decision can be made without consulting--orappearing to consult--Radcliffe's most importantresource: its alumnae.

Radcliffe officials spent the spring deflectingquestions from the press and worried alumnae afterthe Globe reported that "Radcliffe's days ascollege coming to end" on Easter Sunday. Sheerrinsisted that any "future planning" for Radcliffewas internal and routine, while board members ofthe Radcliffe College Alumnae Association (RCAA)demanded answers from Wilson.

RCAA Second Vice President Peggy M. McIntosh'56 resigned her position to protest the secrecyof the high-level negotiations.

By late May, Wilson had posted a "call forcomments" on the Radcliffe web site(www.radcliffe.edu), outlining the "intellectualterrain" for the Radcliffe of the future andasking for alumnae input. During Commencement,Wilson promised her audience that the options forRadcliffe's institutional status would beexplained--"in time."

Going a step further, Wilson is sending outletters to alumnae this week and will play"official listener," announcing a month-longNational Outreach Tour beginning October 8 at theNational Press Club in Washington D.C. (seemap). The trip will emphasize bringing"important discussions about Radcliffe's futureopportunities" to the average 'Cliffie, and may bemodeled on the alumnae question-and-answer sessionheld on Alumnae Day in early June.

In addition, the upcoming issue of RadcliffeQuarterly will feature correspondence displayingthe wide range of opinions held by the RCAAmembership, according to RCAA Executive DirectorMary M. Carty '74.

The Outreach Tour has been organized primarilyby Wilson and her principal staff, and many RCAArepresentatives across the nation were unaware ofthe president's visit as of last week. Theinformation is only now being disseminated, fourweeks before the first stop on the trip, andinitial reactions to the tour are positive.

While there are some who cringe at the end ofan independent Radcliffe, dozens of alumnae havetold The Crimson they support some type ofinstitutional change if a Radcliffe within Harvardwere well-funded and supported for the future.

Carty says the road trip is a good idea, andthat alumnae are responding favorably to theopportunity to voice their views.

If Wilson can return to Cambridge in Novemberwith an iota of a mandate, she and Sheerr can feelmore confident at the negotiating table later thisfall. They will at least be able to say they askedfor alumnae opinion, even if there is some vocalopposition to a major merger.

Home Base

Back in Cambridge, Wilson and her staff try toreturn to business as usual as the communitybraces for what promises to be a defining year forThe Relationship.

there are no Radcliffe T-shirts for theundergraduates this year. (Radcliffeadministrators say they had been told by studentsthat the shirts were "tacky marketing tactics," soFay House opted for "cool and high-tech" mousepadsinstead.)

Never mind, too, that Radcliffe CollegeConvocation has been postponed to October to avoidcompetition with other first-year week events andto instead coincide with the biannual AlumnaeCouncil weekend.