'Non-Merger' Plan May Determine Selection of Bunting's Successor

The manner of selection of a successor to Radcliffe President Mary I. Bunting may be partly determined this afternoon when the Corporation meets to discuss the "non-merger" contract released in December by the Committee on Harvard-Radclike Relationships.

The Radcliffe Board of Trustees approved the "non-merger" plan-which provides that the President of Radcliffe will be replaced by a dean of Radcliffe who will be a member of the Faculty and also of the Council of Deans of the University-at a meeting last Thursday.

Bunting announced her intention to resign as President of Radcliffe on June 30, 1972 at the same meeting.

If the Corporation approves the "non-merger" plan this afternoon, it will go into effect on June 30, 1971. Bunting would then serve her final year as the first dean of Radcliffe.

Francis H. Burr '35, a member of the H-R Relationships Committee and Senior Fellow of the Corporation, said Friday that the search for a successor to Bunting will not begin for some time and that "it's not an issue until the Overseers and the Corporation determine whether [her successor] will be president or a dean."

Bunting outlined the selection process as a joint decision by the Radcliffe Trustees and the Harvard Overseers. Provided the "non-merger" plan is approved, the two bodies will choose Radcliffe's second dean.

The Radcliffe Trustees will also have the option, in the event of the "non-merger," to decide whether the dean of Radcliffe should retain the title of President or whether the title should be dropped altogether.

There is, of course, the good possibility of an entirely different selection process being developed before the search for Bunting's successor begins in earnest.

Discussing her resignation Friday, Bunting said, "I've always thought that, under the present circumstances, no one should stay too long as the top administrator or president of an institution."

"Ten years seemed to be about the right length of time for me to stay at Radcliffe," she continued. "However, with a new contract being negotiated with Harvard, I felt I should remain in office one more year as the details are being worked out."

Bunting has been President of Radcliffe since 1960 and will quit her position three years before she reaches the mandatory retirement age of 65. She announced he plans now "in order to clarify the situation" and "to allow the Trustees [time] to find a successor."