The Boards Buy the Strauch Report

Any lingering doubts that the governing boards of Harvard and Radcliffe would attempt to head off a move to equal access admissions were virtually dispelled this week when the Harvard Corporation and the Radcliffe Trustees publicly endorsed the Strauch Committee recommendations and jointly pledged full co-operation in implementing them.

The Strauch report must still be approved by the Harvard Board of Overseers, but an Overseers visiting committee has already recommended that the board do so at its May 12 meeting.

In reality, there was never a serious threat that any of the boards would not ratify the call for equal admissions through one unified office and the supportive resolutions drawn up by the committee chaired by Karl Strauch, professor of Physics.

The Trustees, Overseers and Corporation anticipated the Strauch proposals, long before they were issued in February and have spent much time during the past year in preparing their respective constituencies for the changes that are planned for next year.

The key area of concern for the governing boards was to ensure that alumni/ae groups had ample time to get accustomed to the idea of students being admitted without regard to definite sex ratios. Everyone especially wanted to make certain that Harvard did not get caught in the alumni rebellions Yale and Princeton faced when they started dickering with the size of their male classes.

So, all last spring and fall and into the winter months Strauch was kept busy telling groups of alumni about his committee and what it was supposed to accomplish to a fairly.

Strauch, while being very careful not to say directly what his committee would recommend, left enough subtle hints with each group to make it clear that equal access was the wave of the future for Harvard and Radcliffe.

Then, after the Strauch report was released, alumni/ae newsletters cranked out announcements of the recommendations, invariably beginning them with the clause. "As Professor Strauch told us last fall..."

The joint statement issued yesterday by the Corporation and the Trustees was suggested by President Bok as a show of unity by the two boards in their enthusiasm for the Strauch recommendations. This unity is however, precarious.

The Corporation deliberated and passed the Strauch report last week in ten minutes and approved a one paragraph statement by Bok. On the other hand, the Trustees, after receiving a report and three pages of suggestions from their Future Committee, spent the better part of a day-long meeting discussing the report.

The Trustees and Radcliffe administrators are still leery of equal access without true commitment to coeducation and have been careful to make it clear that they expect more than just token increases in women faculty and administrators to accompany equal access.