Alums clamored for details, leading Wilson to embark on a month-long, 10-city whirlwind tour in October to visit Radcliffe graduates nationwide and hear their suggestions for the future. During the sparsely attended gatherings, Wilson offered little information regarding Radcliffe's internal talks.
"People were delighted [she] came; however, this is a very empirical crowd," said Judith A. Dollenmayer '63, who attended the Washington, D.C. tour stop. "They want to know the who, what, where, when and how."
As the months dragged on and the answers remained few, however, the fervor was replaced by malaise. Between June 1998 and February of this year, five top Radcliffe officials left the college. When Radcliffe advertised some of their posts as "interim," many saw an institution uncertain about its future form.
Radcliffe observers offered the college's Board of Trustees several formal proposals. A plan put forward by three alumnae leaders called for an activist Radcliffe Center, the focal point for all women's programming on campus. Another plan, by five female members of the Faculty, would have created an Institute devoted specifically to the study of women and gender. Undergraduates, meanwhile, clamored and still agitate for a "women's center" to offer services they felt neither Harvard nor Radcliffe were currently giving them.
The new Institute closely resembles the Faculty plan, but with some key differences. For instance, the Faculty plan called for moving the Women's Studies program in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to Radcliffe Yard and funding new professorships in the committee.
The Institute, though, will have no ties to the Women's Studies program. In fact, the study of gender will be subordinate to a much broader focus on "the academic disciplines, professions and the creative arts"--in short, everything.
Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles said Faculty members will be involved in the shaping of the institute's academic focus. But student leaders of some women's groups are more wary of how the deal will affect them.
Last month, the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) convened an "emergency" meeting to make sure that their group, which is funded by an extra term-bill fee imposed on female undergraduates, will survive the end of Radcliffe College.
They are also concerned that Title IX law and entrenched College policy prohibit programs like Radcliffe's externships and mentorships from being open to women only.
RUS leaders plan to petition Harvard administrators over the summer to make sure their demands do not go unheard.
"We can try to play our own form of hardball with them," said Amy L. Beck '00.