Fox made it clear, however, that the Collegecould not commit to the women's center anytimesoon.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 "is notin a position, while he deals with Radcliffemerger issues, to discuss a women's center," Foxsays.

But more fundamental difficulties may impedethe long wait that would precede a women'scenter--if the University undertakes such aproject at all. In this case, Harvard's policy ofinclusion would stand in the way.

In an e-mail message last month, Lewis wrote,"It is our stance that all of Harvard belongs toall the students, and the creation of a separatespace for women (or for minority students) wouldinstitutionalize the notion that the rest ofHarvard does not fully belong to them."

The Tortoise Wins the Race

While it seemed that Harvard lagged behindother schools in making financial aid changes, itseventual policy announcement last fall positionedthe school as a leader.

The announcement came eight months afterPrinceton had made a $4 to $6 million aidincrease, followed by sizable increases in aid atYale, Stanford and MIT.

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, however,rejects the notion that Harvard "intended blindlyto mimic [other schools'] actions."

"I consider changes in financial aid EVERYyear, and every year we make adjustments," Knowleswrote in an email message.

"The major step we took last year...was drivenmainly by the fact that we were able to do it," headds, alluding to the large increase in availablefunds that resulted from Harvard's current CapitalCampaign.

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R.Fitzsimmons '67 notes that Harvard made itsfinancial aid changes for different reasons thanschools like Princeton, which had seen a declinein yield from middle- and lower-class applicants.In contrast, Harvard has seen a steady increase inyield. The policy changes were made in an effortto reduce the burden on financial aid students.

"I think we were headed toward a two-tiersystem...in which financial aid students were notfully able to take advantage of the opportunitiesat Harvard," he says, noting that students couldchoose to reduce the time they spend on term-timeor summer employment with the aid increase.

"There's not an institution in the country thatwouldn't have taken a second look at itspolicies," Fitzsimmons says.

But Harvard's increasing yield allowed it totake its time when formulating its new financialaid offerings. In the meantime, Harvard made itclear to admitted students that it would respondto competitive aid offers on a case-by-case basis.

When the University finally acted, it acted ina big way: a 20 percent aid increase, totaling $9million and dwarfing the per-student increases atYale, MIT and Stanford. Harvard's changesimmediately took effect for all students onfinancial aid while the changes at other schoolstook effect only for later classes.