When Mary Maples Dunn, acting dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, taught a senior seminar at Bryn Mawr about the Monroe Doctrine in the spring of 1968, Drew Gilpin was one of her most outstanding students.

"She was the type of student you shape your teaching to," Dunn says.

Dunn even wrote the young Gilpin a letter of recommendation for graduate school.

With 32 years, a Ph.D. and a different last name behind her, Drew Gilpin Faust is poised to assume her former professor's position as Dean of the Radcliffe Institute.

Faust has her old teacher's approval. Last week Dunn said that she was "thrilled" about the appointment and quipped yesterday that she "won't look Drew up in [her] old grade books."

But Faust has taken on what is likely to be one of the most challenging positions she'll hold in academia.

After two years of intense and often strained negotiations, Radcliffe College agreed to merge with Harvard last spring. The negotiations pitted a Radcliffe delegation bent on preserving the college's identity against Harvard deal makers who wanted to assume full control over undergraduates.

When the deal was finally completed last October, the big details--like the amount of money Harvard would kick in for Radcliffe's endowment--were in place and in writing.

But many major decisions, from the focus of the Institute's programming to Radcliffe's plans for the Agassiz Theatre, have been left for the first dean.

At times, the first permanent dean--called the "founding dean" by some--seemed to be the all-purpose answer to any tough question about Radcliffe's future.

"[The first permanent dean] will shape a lot of the intellectual agenda. She has to figure out how to make all the pieces of Radcliffe work," President Neil L. Rudenstine said in early February.

And though Dunn has been crisscrossing the nation this year to talk to alumnae groups about Radcliffe's merger with Harvard, she has often deferred questions about the future, saying that alums could expect "the first dean...to concentrate on talking about the present and future."

The buck has been passed to Faust on a host of contentious issues, like what to do with Radcliffe's assortment of real estate.

Faced with a room of disgruntled graduate students this spring, John O. Horst, the Institute's director of facilities, passed the prickly issue of the future of Cronkhite Graduate Center off on the permanent dean before she was even appointed.

When the dean's search started in earnest last September, certain concrete criteria were clear from the very beginning.

Both Harvard and Radcliffe's power players--the two committees of governing board members and Faculty--agreed that she would have to be a woman.

She would have to be a preeminent academic, distinguished enough for tenure at Harvard and able to hone the Institute's intellectual agenda.

She would have to have a demonstrated commitment to women and gender issues.

"We're not going to appoint someone who is not vitally interested and committed to those types of issues," Rudenstine said in February. "They'll one way or another do work in that field."

And some administrative experience wouldn't hurt either.

Faust seems to fit the bill. She is first-rate historian who will also be a professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). She's headed up the University of Pennsylvania's Women Studies Program and written extensively about women's history, most recently in her 1997 book, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War.

And she can even handle the unexpected--like when the Harvard Gazette's reporter asked the statuesque Faust how tall she was at yesterday's press conference.

"Five feet, 11 inches, and don't ask me about my weight," she laughed.

"A good sense of humor is very important at Harvard," says Joan M. Hutchins '61, president of the Board of Overseers and a member of the dean selection committee.

But the tasks that lie ahead at Radcliffe might test any sense of humor.

Faust will control a $350 million endowment and is expected to create a world-class research center out of a Radcliffe still unsure about its identity.

The Institute's own mission statement, part of the merger agreement, sets forth two distinct goals for the Institute: it will be a place for all kinds of academic research and artistic achievement but must retain Radcliffe's commitment to women, gender and society.

But leaders of Harvard and Radcliffe had trouble agreeing on the right mix of research on general topics and focus on women's issues. One of the most bitter fights during the merger negotiations was over the seemingly trivial question of which goal to list first in the official mission statement.

"The two missions do not have to be separated into separate parts of the Institute. They can interact constantly," Faust said yesterday.

She added that she envisions the Institute "building on the important traditions of Radcliffe College, like the fellowship programs."

But regardless of its focus, Rudenstine and the selection committees agree that Faust's academic presence and her active leadership will create a cutting-edge research center in Radcliffe Yard.

"If you are a president of any university in the world, and you're looking for a new faculty member, the first thing you'll do is get a hold of a list of the Radcliffe scholars. And the first person you'll call is the dean of the Radcliffe Institute," Provost Harvey R. Fineberg '67 predicted last fall.

But though lofty ideas about academic mission and gender inquiry fit squarely into Faust's agenda for shaping the Institute, she also has more concrete decisions--like the fate of buildings--to decide as well.

Leases negotiated between Radcliffe and Harvard keep FAS's office of admissions and financial aid in Byerly Hall until 2006 and secure access for undergraduates to Agassiz Theatre until 2004.

Dunn has said that she sees no reason why undergraduates should not still use Agassiz and its basement set shop, but has also said that ultimately, "it will be up to the new dean."

College administrators have said they are not counting on having Agassiz in the future and have been exploring alternate theater spaces in recent months.

But ultimately the future of undergraduate use of Agassiz is Faust's decision.

Radcliffe's relationship with undergraduates, while well-defined in the merger agreement, also raises questions for the new dean. According to the deal, Radcliffe retains no official ties to undergraduates.

While the merger agreement calls for Radcliffe to keep its hands off undergraduates, Faust said she does see some opportunity for interaction between students and the Institute.

"Seminars and conferences are possibilities," she said. "There is also potential for mentorship with the Radcliffe fellows."

Besides academic theories, buildings and students, there is also money to contend with.

Radcliffe is close to finishing its $100 million capital campaign. A party to celebrate the completion of the campaign is scheduled for October.

But Radcliffe has suffered from a lower number of donors in its annual fund drive this year.

Fewer people have made donations, though the actual dollar amount of funds has remained comparable to recent years.

Some hope that Faust will be able to inspire the confidence--and pocketbooks--of alums.

Bonnie Clendenning, dean for external relations, said last month that she hoped for a dean "who is good in person to person situations, a good communicator."

"I hope she's not shy," Clendenning said.

The issues facing the new dean keep piling up. But Faust won't actually arrive in Cambridge until January--she says she has writing and teaching commitments to honor first. It remains unclear whether Faust plans to put off major decisions until her official arrival in January.

Until then, Faust says she plans to "be in [Cambridge] a lot," "actively involved" and "working to learn the Harvard culture."