Harvard May Give 'Cliffies '63 Diplomas

The Faculty will vote tomorrow on a proposal to reword the Radcliffe College diploma so that Harvard, rather than the 'Cliffe, awards the degree. Faculty approval of the motion is understood to be virtually certain.

Radcliffe President Mary I. Bunting said last night that the proposed move would "clarify"--but not alter--the relationship between Harvard and Radcliffe. The Radcliffe trustees have already approved the move.

The exact format of the reworded diplomas would have to be decided by the Harvard Corporation and Radcliffe's trustees later in the spring. The details have not yet been discussed, but the general plan is to change a Radcliffe diploma with Harvard signatures on the bottom into a Harvard diploma with Radcliffe signatures added.

The machinery for the proposed change was set in motion by the Faculty meeting of November 14, when Harvard opened the way for a complete merger--including a diploma revision--between the Radcliffe and Harvard Graduate Schools of Arts and Sciences. The Radcliffe trustees subsequently approved the GSAS merger, on the condition that a change also be made in the degree awarded at the College level.

The Trustees, according to Mrs. Bunting, wanted to bring all the administrative procedues up to date at the same time, rather than have Radcliffe "nibbled away piece by piece."

After approval by the Radcliffe College Council, an executive body of the trustees, the proposal for the change in the College degree went before the Faculty Committee on Educational Policy, where it was passed unanimously in a special meeting on Friday, March 31.

The motion going before the Faculty tomorrow is in the form of a recommendation to the Corporation. It is not expected that the Corporation will oppose the recommendation.