But even though they were kept out of the negotiations, many alumnae said they weren't surprised by the final decision.

The college many of them knew as undergraduates essentially disappeared after a 1977 agreement fully incorporated women into Harvard's student body. Since then, Radcliffe's role has been unclear.

"It's very much like the American Revolution--it formalizes something that has been going on for decades," said Tina M. Smith '83, vice president of the Harvard Club of Silicon Valley.

Under the new agreement, Radcliffe's most successful enterprises, such as the Bunting Institute and the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute, will continue, but the college will finally lose its institutional autonomy.

"It was clear that something was going to have to change--Radcliffe, as it existed, was marginalized," said A'Lelia P. Bundles '74, who is currently serving as first vice president of RCAA. "In the best of all possible worlds, I wish Radcliffe could remain independent forever, but that's not the reality of the world in which we're living."

Other alumnae share Bundles' nostalgia for the college that put them on more equal footing with Harvard men. While some feel that women now have a strong voice within Harvard, others fear that female undergraduates will lose a powerful advocate whose benefits many do not even recognize until long after graduation.

"As I feared, the tie to undergraduate women at Harvard has been cut, and I'm very sorry about that," said Peggy M. McIntosh '56, who resigned her post as second vice president of RCAA last spring because of her frustrations with the closed-door negotiations. "Even if undergraduate programs at Radcliffe weren't strong, they meant a lot to women."