Faust, too, stresses the importance of maintaining Radcliffe’s mission.
“We do have to be wary,” Faust says. “We want to be very careful not to become the servants of the needs of these departments.”
THE CHALLENGE AHEAD
When Faust arrived at Radcliffe, the Institute was teetering on the edge of an identity crisis, struggling to find its footing within the University and the academy at large.
But this has been a landmark year for Radcliffe, with the implementation of major changes in the fellowship program’s structure, a dramatic increase in applications, the addition of Barbara Grosz and Katherine Newman as academic deans and the hiring of acclaimed women’s history scholar Nancy Cott to head the Schlesinger Library.
“It gives them a kind of a permanent faculty, so that they have some people with vision putting a larger stamp on things,” Bynum says.
And Faust credits her new academic deans with increasing the profile and understanding of Radcliffe at Harvard.
Within the University, Radcliffe has made its way onto the map,” she says.
In addition to increased advertising, a more targeted part of the publicity process will begin this summer with a letter-writing campaign to prospective fellows, which explained the Institute and encouraged scholars to apply.
This is only the beginning of the changes on Radcliffe’s to-do list.
Unlike the other institutes for advanced study, which have had the leeway to develop space that meets the needs of their programs, Radcliffe remains entangled in space constraints. Many Radcliffe-owned buildings are rented out, providing the Institute with considerable income but also limiting its ability to develop a central place for fellows to convene and work, which Faust views as essential to the fellowship program’s growth and success. FAS currently holds leases to three major buildings in Radcliffe Yard—Byerly Hall, Agassiz Theatre and the Rieman Center.
Faust is optimistic, however, that the Institute’s efforts to raise its public profile will pay off and that, before long, everyone will know about the Institute.
“It’s going to be terrible when they do,” she jokes. “I don’t know what we’ll do with all the applications.”
—Portions of this article appeared in the 2002 Commencement edition of The Crimson.