Neither Lewis nor Jeremy R. Knowles, dean of the Faculty, would acknowledge last week that the Frothingham was under or needed legal review.

But with Radcliffe College's merger with Harvard last year, the newly formed Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study transferred responsibility for every Radcliffe award except the Fay Prize to the College. Since then, sorting through the legalities of gender-restricted prizes has been on the College's agenda.

Many of Radcliffe's prizes carried gender restrictions with them--Radcliffe had always given them to a woman, and as an all-women's college, had been exempt from the gender-blind policies Title IX mandates.

After officially becoming part of Harvard, Radcliffe lost its exemption status, and was forced to open up its prizes to applicants of all genders.

The legal process of removing the gender restrictions brought Radcliffe's prizes to the Holyoke Center desks of Harvard's Office of General Counsel.

Lewis said yesterday that during this process, he asked for the College's gender-restricted prizes to be examined as well.

The Crimson reported last Friday that the Fay Prize--what had been Radcliffe College's highest honor for a graduating woman--would not be awarded this year.