College administrators are quietly assembling a student-faculty committee to oversee the Ann Radcliffe Trust, a powerful group that will dole out nearly $20,000 in annual funding to groups dealing with women's issues.

But some students complain that the process of choosing undergraduate representatives has been conducted in secret at the whim of a single administrator, Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery '87.

In the wake of the Harvard-Radcliffe merger, students say they are concerned that the inclusive spirit of the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS), which used to control funding for women's groups on campus, will be lost in the closed-door process.

Avery, who heads the Trust, says she's "been picking student leaders and others who'd have a key interest."

But others have cried foul as Avery begins choosing committee members without a public selection process or clear criteria for potential members.

"I am also disturbed that Dean Avery hand-picked the students to sit on the committee for the trust," says David B. Orr '01, a member of the Undergraduate Council, in an e-mail message.

Orr sponsored a successful bill before the council on Sunday night that calls for student representatives to the trust to be elected by the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) in the same manner as other student-Faculty committees.

The Trust committee, which will distribute anywhere between $15,000 and $20,000 a year to student groups interested in women's and gender issues, may still be dominated by students--Avery says student representatives will outnumber faculty by as much as two to one.

The committee will have 12 to 15 student members and eight to 10 faculty, Avery says.

And although Avery will decide who will sit on the initial committee to advise the Trust, she says one of the group's first orders of business will be to decide how its future members will be chosen.

"They'll be helping to make things happen--it's exciting that we'll shape the future of the Ann Radcliffe Trust," Avery says.

The committee will also establish the application process for groups to receive funding from the Trust's sizable purse.

"We need to work out the plans for the grants process," Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 says in an e-mail message. Lewis will serve as a faculty representative on the committee.

Avery and Lewis say they have clear, immediate goals for the committee--establishing a system for funding and deciding how future members will be chosen.

But students are still unclear as to what the Trust will actually do.