Dunn said she and Knowles discussed changing the prize so it could be awarded on the basis of academic merit--a departure from the "citizenship' criteria of recent years, but still in keeping with the donors' original intentions.

"The question is what kind of prize [the Fay will be]. It is the only prize the Institute has retained," she said. "We needed to develop a different process; we probably will not [get nominations] through the Houses."

Dunn said a process that involved the Faculty would probably be necessary to award an academic prize, and by the time she and Knowles had reached a consensus, there was not enough time left before Commencement to develop such a process.

When the Fay prize returns next year, its selection criteria may well have changed. But according to Dunn and Connors, it will have to be open to both men and women.

Connors said yesterday he could not speak in detail about the Fay prize without breaching his attorney/client privilege with the University.

But he emphasized that the Fay prize comes under the jurisdiction of Title IX because it is classified as a prize, not an undergraduate financial aid award.

Connors said if a man and a woman both qualify for financial aid, the man may legally receive money from a males-only fund, because the woman will also get the amount of aid she needs--though from a different source.