Radcliffe Fund Drive Asks Equal Admission

A Radcliffe senior has established an Equal Admissions Fund to receive donations for Radcliffe College and hold them until provisions are made for admitting a one-to-one ratio of women to Harvard.

Katherine C. Fletcher '71, organizer of the fund, said it will begin accepting donations during Commencement and continue for the next ten years, allowing Harvard and Radcliffe a ten-year grace period in which to achieve equal admissions.

"We're hoping that the Equal Admissions Fund will give Radcliffe students and alumnae who want to support the College a chance to express their dissatisfaction with the present ratio, but more importantly we think the Fund may give Radcliffe some leverage with Harvard in terms of admitting more women," Fletcher said last night.

Just in Case

If after ten years the Class of 1985 does not have a one-to-one ratio, the committee administering the Fund, composed of one member of the Class of 1970 and one each from each of the classes now enrolled, will meet to decide how to dispose of the money collected.

"We, would probably want to have the money go for scholarships for women, whenever we could turn it over to Radcliffe," Fletcher added. "We definitely won't just turn the money over automatically after ten years. That would mean there was no motivation for them to push hard for equal admissions, if they knew they were going to get the money in the end anyway."

"I think there is a remote possibility that Radcliffe will refuse to have anything to do with the Fund, but I'm sure they won't if it is a collective, united effort and if we don't detract from their regular fund-raising efforts," Fletcher added.

Women

President Mary I. Bunting declined to comment last night on plans for the Fund. Fletcher stated, however, that the Fund would urge students and alumnae to give both to the Fund and to the Radcliffe scholarship drive.

Fletcher has joined forces with the senior women participating in the Commencement protest for equal admissions. Any money raised by the women left over after the protest is financed will be used to send fund-raising letters to the Classes of '70 and '71.