Immediate changes included co-ed Houses andfirst-year women living in the Yard dorms.

Then, in 1972, University President Derek C.Bok lowered the male-female ratio for the class of1976 from 4:1 to 2.5:1. Students were happy withthe more equitable ratio, but some considered itto be too little, too late.

"It's great that he lowered it but that took along time to show itself," Piltch said.

The attempts to equalize made little differencein academics though, for women and men had beenattending class together since the mid-1950s.

Yet the classroom was rarely a place of equalopportunity.

"It's so radically different when you shareclassrooms together. There were 1,200 men with 400women on campus," remembers Tom Parry '74.

"I had many experiences in my classes where theT.F. would turn to me and ask, 'What's the woman'sperspective on this? because I was the only womanin my section," Piltch recalls.

Outside of the academic realm, Harvard womenwere also struggling for equal opportunity on theplaying field.

"A number of women in our class had theexperience of playing on athletic teams that werejust getting the back of the hand from Harvard,"Leonard says.

RoAnn Costin '74, a varsity swimmer and memberof the first Radcliffe rowing team, calls the 1973merger between the Harvard and Radcliffe athleticdepartments a major victory for female athletes.

"Budget was where the power was. All of asudden it made men sort of sit up and take noticethat women are [fielding teams] with such smallamounts of money," Costin says.

For the Radcliffe women, even these smallvictories helped them become equal to their maleclassmates.

"Just the idea of leveling the playing field,that was a huge positive change, Costin says