Wilson Selected as New Radcliffe President

Linda Smith Wilson, a University of Michigan vice president, will be named the seventh Radcliffe president this afternoon.

Members of the Radcliffe Board of Trustees, which holds final say on the appointment, said last night they will almost certainly confirm Wilson at a noon meeting today.

After a 16-month search during which at least four top candidates removed their names from consideration, a search committee--composed of trustees--selected Wilson little more than a month before outgoing President Matina S. Horner will end her 17-year tenure.

Horner announced her decision to step down from the presidency in February, 1988, saying she wanted to return to her scholarly work.

"[Wilson] has said she will accept if the Board of Trustees approves her, but decisions are never final until the Board takes its oath," Horner said last night. Horner--Radcliffe's youngest president when she was selected in 1972--said the 53-year-old Michigan administrator has worked with her in the past and is unlikely to face opposition from the Board.

"She's a wonderfully talented, imaginative person who I think will do just terrific things," Horner said. "I have so much respect for everything she could contribute."

Wilson, a chemist who has been at Michigan for the past four years, has served on several national research committees, including the National Science Foundation advisory committee, where she worked with Horner.

Wilson came highly recommended for the post by Princeton University President Harold Shapiro, who appointed her vice president for research while he was at Michigan, sources said.

Although Horner's plans for next year have not yet been announced, she said last night she would be available to help Wilson make the transition to the Radcliffe job. Horner added that she has already been in contact with her successor, and will work with her over the next several months.

"We've already been talking, and we will continue to work in transition over the next two months," Horner said. "I will of course always be available if she needs my advice."

Nancy-Beth Sheerr '71, who chaired the search committee, said yesterday that the decision to call a Board of Trustees meeting was made two weeks ago.

"We don't anticipate that there will be any conflict [in the meeting]," Sheerr said, adding she could not "confirm or deny" the decision.

And Board of Trustees Chair Amey A. DeFriez '49 said there would be a press conference today at 2 p.m. She refused further comment on the appointment, however, saying, "I would rather get into it after the Trustees have acted on it."

Earlier this spring the post was unofficially offered to Yale Professor of Psychology Judith Rodin, who later declined it. In addition, several other candidates--including Harvard Law School Professor Martha L. Minow and Duke University Professor Anne F. Scott--were seriously considered for the post until they removed themselves from consideration.

When the search committee offered the presidency to Rodin they had narrowed their search from a field of more than 300 to a short list of about six candidates, according to Radcliffe sources. But after Rodin, Scott and Minow removed their names from the list, college administrators said the remaining three top candidates would not be offered the post.

Until yesterday, many University officials had said they thought an acting president would replace Horner for at least one semester.

But trustees said last night that the search committee held several meetings in March and April to discuss other potential candidates for the post. Wilson's name was first put forward during those meetings, sources said last night. One official said her candidacy was discussed only after Rodin had declined the post.

Wilson, when contacted at the Sheraton-Commander Hotel in Cambridge last night, refused comment on the appointment. In town with her husband, Paul Smith, Wilson referred questions to the Board of Trustees.

Horner said last night that Wilson will attend this afternoon's press conference.

Uncertain Future

When Wilson takes over the Radcliffe post on July 1, she will have to guide a school that has changed dramatically in the years since Horner was chosen. During Horner's tenure, Radcliffe has ceded control of undergraduate life--academic and residential--to Harvard, while more than doubling its endowment and expanding its research programs.

Most observers credit Horner with making the school one of the nation's foremost research institutions for women by building up Radcliffe's scholarly programs--the Bunting Institute, the Murray Research Center and the Schlesinger Library.

But Wilson will have to contend with reevaluating the course for Radcliffe established during Horner's years at the college, Radcliffe affiliates have said.

Although most trustees contacted last night refused comment on Wilson, they said throughout the lengthy search process that the choice of the new president would mark a turning point for Radcliffe.

"The choice of which issues are the most important and the choice of a new president are connected because the new president will be the dominant figure in shaping Radcliffe in the next several years," Menzel Professor of Astrophysics David Layzer, who sat on the search committee, said last month.

But students, faculty and administrators have been divided over what kind of role the new Radcliffe president should have at Harvard.

While some have said they thought the new president should be a scholar who would actively engage in undergraduate life, other Radcliffe affiliates have said that fundraising ability should be the new president's main qualification. Many also stressed the importance of picking a president known for speaking out on women's issues.

But despite concern that the new president press for increased women faculty hiring and other Harvard-related women's issues, many students and administrators expressed doubts about the Radcliffe president's authority within the University to effect any concrete changes.

Radcliffe Union of Students Treasurer Serena Y. Volpp '92 has said that a professor who is a tenured member of the faculty would "ultimately be the best" to fulfill such a mandate.

And Layzer said in an earlier interview, "It is very important that the new president be a person of high scholarly reputation. The president will be able to accomplish her objectives more effectively if she commands respect."

It is unclear whether Wilson will receive a Harvard faculty appointment in addition to the Radcliffe post. Under the terms of the 1977 "non-merger merger" agreement between Harvard and Radcliffe, the Radcliffe president is also a dean of the University.

Horner, an associate professor of psychology, has never received a tenured post at the University.

While both Scott and Minow have been characterized as "strong feminists," one Michigan administrator said Wilson was "not particularly a feminist."

Rather, Michigan administrators said last night that Wilson's primary concerns are administrative and research-oriented.

"She went into academic administration almost immediately," said one Michigan official, who characterized Wilson as "among the top half-dozen administrators" at the university.

And Robert Holbrook, associate vice president for academic affairs at Michigan, said that Wilson has been "involved in all decisions at the top level, [although] her primary role is encouraging research."

The Radcliffe appointment is "the next logical step for her take," said Andrew Nagy, who works under Wilson as the associate vice president for research.

Although Nagy said the decision was not common knowledge at the University of Michigan, he added that he had "recently heard some mumblings [around the office]."

Madhavi Sunder contributed to the reporting of this article.