Radcliffe College and Harvard University officially merged at one minute after midnight this morning.

As most of the campus went to bed, Radcliffe College quietly became the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

A few Radcliffe stalwarts converged outside Fay House to mark the historic change. Beneath the small apple tree that guards Radcliffe Yard--a traditional symbol of the college--a group of Radcliffe officials gathered at 12:01 a.m. to toast the end of the 120-year-old institution's independence from Harvard and the birth of the Institute.

"Radcliffe has been around for 120 years," said A. Keene Metzger '67, the Institute's dean of administration and finance. "She deserves that we be here to see the light go from her... At the same time, we should see the first breath go into the lungs of the Radcliffe Institute."

As a stereo played music from the Harvard Glee Club, the group--which included Bunting Fellowship Program Director Rita Nakashima Brock--raised glasses of champagne at the precise moment of transition. Metzger rang an antique schoolhouse bell that belonged to his grandfather.

Last night, the Institute also launched a new Web site. The Lyman Common Room, a women's center in Agassiz House, has now been emptied of most of its decorations.

Leaders of Harvard and Radcliffe attended a dinner last Sunday to celebrate the final meeting of the now-defunct Radcliffe Board of Trustees.

"It's a wonderful event, and I could not be happier to be here," President Neil L. Rudenstine told about 75 Radcliffe trustees, administrators and members of the Harvard Corporation.

Nancy-Beth G. Sheerr '71, former chairman of the Radcliffe trustees, presented Rudenstine with a copy of the 1894 Radcliffe charter.