Yet Fineberg and Wallach attacked theoutstanding issues with a vengeance.
"They went at it nonstop," one source says. "Ithink [Wallach] felt she was doing it day andnight for a few weeks."
New snags appeared. Radcliffe had long beenreluctant to show Harvard its financial books.
As a final deal looked more and more likely,Harvard's lawyers demanded the right to conductdue diligence, the routine examination of financesin mergers.
Anne Taylor, Harvard's general counsel, was atlast allowed a quick glance at Radcliffe's booksin early April, only days before a final deal wasinked, one source says.
In the final two months, property was the issuethat loomed the largest. Harvard assumed that theRadcliffe Quad would be a non-issue, that therewould be no objections to continuing undergraduatehousing in Cabot, Currier and Pforzheimer Houses.
But at one point, at least, in the finalstretch, Radcliffe floated the idea of taking overCabot House's Eliot and Bertram Halls (whichcurrently house 82 students) for future Instituteuse. After further discussion, they agreed theQuad would become Harvard College property afterall.
More complicated were Byerly and Agassiz Halls,home to the College's admissions office and anundergraduate performance space, respectively.
Radcliffe insisted that the Institute neededspace to grow, and Radcliffe Yard was the properplace for expansion. Rudenstine himself returnedto the table to fashion a compromise, one sourcesays. The Institute will have the right to occupyByerly after five years and Agassiz after seven,while the College must make a "good faith" effortto find an alternate site for an admissions officeand theater.
Making the Deal
Finally, on April 12, after two months ofvirtually unceasing exchanges and weekendmeetings, all the pieces were in place. As Sheerrshed tears of satisfaction, the Radcliffe Board ofTrustees voted to accept the deal.
"Everyone spoke. It was a powerful feeling,"Sheerr says, her eyes brimming with tears again atthe memory. "It was the emotion of saying we didit. We brought this to fruition."
There were others who helped bring the twosides to the deal. Sources say Radcliffe TrusteesJill T. Cheng '67, Pendred E. Noyce '77 and JaneA. Silverman '67 were particularly important.Outgoing president of the Harvard Board ofOverseers Charlotte P. Armstrong '49 worked withboth sides to, in her own words, "jumpstart" thetalks this past winter.
But those interviewed agree that the lion'sshare of credit for the deal belongs to Sheerr,who originated the negotiations, who refused tolet the issue die away, who essentially wrote herown job out of existence.
After all, decades of Radcliffe leaders beforeher had failed to accomplish what even then seemedan inevitable step.
"She's Captain Courageous," Dunn says. "It tooka lot of courage for the Radcliffe board to takesuch a huge step."
And on April 20, in an upstairs conference roomin Fay House, she initialed the document thatended the two-year ordeal. It was over at last,and they all shook hands.
And then they filed downstairs to break thenews to the world.