The Paul Revere Frothingham Scholarship--a cash prize traditionally given to a male member of the College's graduating class--has been submitted to Harvard's top attorneys for legal review and may not be awarded this year, Paul A. Bohlmann, director of fellowships at the Office of Career Services (OCS) confirmed yesterday.

The prize recognizes "qualities of excellent scholarship, manliness, and effective support of ...Harvard University."

Harvard lawyers will determine whether the prize's criteria comply with Title IX of the 1972 educational amendments to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars educational institutions who receive federal aid from discriminating on the basis of gender in any of their educational programs.

"The College is currently looking into the legality of the wording [of the Frothingham], and whether it will be awarded this year," Bohlmann said.

The Shaw Award, a travelling fellowship traditionally given to a graduating male, is also being reviewed, Bohlmann said.

Harry R. Lewis '68, dean of Harvard College and chair of the committee which selects the recipient of the Frothingham, wrote yesterday in an e-mail message, "my request that the terms of the remaining College gender-restricted prizes be reviewed was made in the context of Harvard College assuming responsibility for a number of what had been Radcliffe awards."

Lewis said late last week that the legal terms of the Frothingham were last examined in 1977, when Harvard made most of its prizes open to female applicants.

"In 1977, a vast number, and almost all, of the previously males-only prizes and scholarships were opened to women. But to do so required a detailed examination by legal authorities of the precise wording of the terms under which the various prizes were established. As I understand it, the terms of the Frothingham could not be changed," Lewis wrote last Saturday.