Officials to Reopen Applications For Women's Studies Research

Two Radcliffe offices in charge of administering four to six grants for women's studies research will soon re-open applications because only two faculty members applied for the grants before the November 1978 deadline.

The Data Resource and Research Center (DRRC) and the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America will continue to accept applications for stipends of the $350,000 research grant until early May, Janet E. Malley, a DRRC administrative assistant, said yesterday.

The Andrew N. Mellon Foundation funded the three-year grant program which has funds for four to six Harvard researchers each year, Malley said.

Any post-doctorate faculty member is eligible for the funds for researching "curriculum development" at either DRRC or the Schlesinger Library, she said.

"I think faculty members may not have applied for the grant because they do not know what the DRRC and Schlesinger Library have to offer," Judith B. Walzer, assistant dean of Harvard College and a member of the Committee on Women's studies, said yesterday. The committee was formed by the Faculty Council in April 1978.

The DRRC collects information on the impact of social change on women, Peggy Plympton of the Radcliffe Forum, which is responsible for women's extracurricular activities in the Harvard community, said this week.

"It is possible that some of the faculty members thought that by 'curriculum development' we meant that they had to come up with a new course after using the grant," Malley said.

"The guidelines of the grant require only that the recipient use what he has learned through the research in the course he is teaching," she added. The only other stipulation is that the work must be done in the Schlesinger Library or the DRRC, she said.

Hemmed In

"Some faculty members might find guidelines too restrictive," Judith A. Kates, assistant professor of English and Comparative Literature and member of the Faculty Committee on Women's Studies, said yesterday, adding "there just aren't that many people who are aware of how to use the materials in the DRRC and the Schlesinger Library."

Other Harvard organizations are also pursuing the grant's goal of increasing the attention given to women's studies in the Harvard curriculum.

Yak, Yak

Jennifer R. Levin '80, chairman of the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) academics committee, said this week that the committee will talk to administrators and faculty about women's studies, sponsor guest speakers, and inform students of courses with women's perspectives.

In addition, an undergraduate group sponsored by the Radcliffe Forum and the Office of Institutional Policy Research on Women's Education initiated a "grass roots" movement to reach people on an individual level, Nancy J. Krieger '80, a member of the group, said this week.

The Committee on Women's Studies, a special group commissioned by the Faculty Council last spring, is investigating the possibility of incorporating a women's studies course into the Core Curriculum, Jennifer R. Berg '81, a member of the committee, said this week.