Fineberg's handling of the Radcliffe negotiations is also a particular point of tension among Harvard affiliates. Although Rudenstine and then-Chairman of the Radcliffe Board of Trustees Nancy-Beth G. Sheerr '71 began merger negotiations, Fineberg and Radcliffe trustee Susan Wallach continued the talks when Rudenstine and Sheerr were stymied.

In the months between the announcement that Harvard and Radcliffe would merge in April 1999 and the final paperwork in September 1999, Fineberg helped iron out the kinks. Some say Fineberg rushed to finish the job, conceding points that Harvard officials would have fought for longer.

One such instance: the merger states that Harvard cannot solicit funds from Radcliffe alumni who graduated earlier than 1977--that the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study should have the exclusive right to solicit those women.

"Those women were adamant," says the first person who has served as an Overseer. "It threatened to be a deal breaker and Harvard just wasn't willing to have the negotiations collapse over the point when everything else was in place."

To commemorate the final meeting of the Radcliffe College Board of Trustees in late September, Fineberg and Dean of FAS Jeremy R. Knowles donned frocks and sang from Gilbert and Sullivan.

But not everything after the merger was song and dance.

"Some of the women I've talked to have taken Radcliffe out of their wills now because they were interested in undergraduate education for Radcliffe," the Overseer says.