The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study surprised a group of graduate students last week with the announcement that it will postpone renovations to the Cronkhite Graduate Center scheduled to take place this summer.

Radcliffe spokesperson Michael A. Armini confirmed that the new Institute decided to take an additional year to evaluate how Radcliffe will use the space.

As a result of the decision, 70 residential rooms in Cronkhite--a building that houses nearly 150 graduate students--will continue to serve as dorm rooms for an additional year.

The Institute had planned to convert 70 rooms into office space for the Institute's 58 academic fellows--the most Radcliffe has ever had. But the planned renovations will begin in the summer of 2001, Armini said.

"Our plan is to proceed with the changes at Cronkhite next year," he said.

Armini said the decision to delay construction came as Radcliffe continued to assess how best to use its buildings for the not quite year-old Institute. External considerations, such as obtaining the necessary permits to start a renovation project, were also a factor.

"As we proceeded with our space planning process, we couldn't stick to our original timetable," Armini said. "There are certain regulatory hurdles at the city level--those may prove to be significant. They may take more time; we wanted to take more time."

Armini said Radcliffe also spoke with Harvard's central administration about the University-wide ramification of displacing 70 graduate students from Cronkhite.