"A lot of people don't trust Harvard. Harvard has a very large endowment, and Harvard doesn't spend it voluntarily on things that we would like," said Naiman, who has given annually to Radcliffe. "When all of us die off and have no more wills to bequeath things in, will [Harvard] stop caring about this [Institute]?"

Radcliffe and Harvard will together have to convince older alumnae, many of whom have the most money to give, that their gift will be a long-lasting legacy. In Tuesday's press conference, Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine noted that any institute for advanced study must sustain itself primarily through donations.

"We're still under the gun to raise just as much money," Clendenning said.

The chairman of the Radcliffe Board of Trustees, Nancy-Beth G. Sheerr '71, has said Radcliffe will still strive for at least $100 million in gifts to help make its new Institute run. However, no decision has been made about whether the effort will be billed as the completion of the independent Radcliffe campaign or subsumed into a larger Harvard effort.

"That is an unresolved issue, and we will need to talk about it," Sheerr said. "We will hopefully--and I'm sure [we will]--complete this capital campaign successfully. It might be extended and enlarged."

But with no more Radcliffe graduates, an alumnae pool will naturally decrease over time, and the obvious candidates for giving will begin to disappear over the years.

Rudenstine said the University has said it will appropriate some its own funds to offset any dips in donation over the next few years. Rudenstine said he is confident that by then a steady stream of new supporters will have emerged.