Though they received their diplomas more than 25 years ago, it was not until last month that alums who graduated from Radcliffe before 1976 received an official welcome from Harvard.

A letter, jointly written and sent by Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Dean Drew Gilpin Faust and Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Dean Jeremy R. Knowles, promises equal opportunity for graduates of Harvard and Radcliffe to be involved in both institutions’ alumni activities.

“To resolve the uncomfortable situation that denied pre-1976 alumnae full citizenship in the University community...we believe that all graduates of Harvard and of Radcliffe should be free to participate in whatever programs and activities of the Radcliffe Institute and of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences that they choose,” the letter, dated Feb. 22, states.

Since 1976, only Radcliffe could solicit donations from women who graduated before that year or offer these women positions on advisory or reunion committees.

This left many alums upset that they were overlooked by their alma mater.

“What you’ve done is put a whole group of women out in Siberia,” former President of the Harvard Board of Overseers Charlotte H. Armstrong ’49 said in an interview last May. “They say ‘I never hear from Harvard.’ They don’t feel part of Harvard, yet the Radcliffe that they knew is gone.”

And the decision’s impact extends beyond the return address on fundraising mailings to alums. The agreement—reached in a collegial manner—resolves a major problem in the relationship between Harvard and Radcliffe left unsolved by the Oct. 1, 1999 merger.

A Complicated Past

The rules concern fundraising date back to 1976, when Radcliffe formally transferred responsibility for undergraduate education to Harvard.

At the time of the agreement, known as the “non-merger merger,” Radcliffe administrators noted that without the tuition provided by undergraduates, alumnae donations would become the essential core of Radcliffe’s financial structure.

And when the new merger discussions began in 1998, protecting its alumnae base remained a priority for Radcliffe.

Though Harvard negotiators realized maintaining the agreement was an imperfect solution, they compromised on the arrangement to finalize the overall merger.

“There were lots of things to hammer out,” explains former University Provost Harvey V. Fineberg ’67, who was instrumental in negotiating the merger. “This was one that could comfortably wait and, in fact, did.”

When Faust arrived at Radcliffe last year, the oft-criticized agreement was already tagged as a problem. But first she needed to familiarize herself with the inner-workings of Radcliffe, she says.

“I wanted a chance to talk to Radcliffe people about it, to understand why there was so much anxiety,” Faust says.