Save Single-Sex Programs

The staff is correct in its assertion that Radcliffe is less than ideal. But both their reasoning and their solution are faulty.

We agree with the staff that all students, male and female, should attend and get a degree from Harvard-Radcliffe. We disagree however, that a "dual citizenship" must be achieved by opening Radcliffe's programs to men.

Harvard-Radcliffe is not a place without barriers to women and, contrary to what the staff says, many of the programs now administered by Radcliffe are important and necessary in a world still plagued by sexism.

Women are under-represented in business, trade, government and countless other sectors. Opportunities such as the Radcliffe Externship program, the Radcliffe Publishing course and scholarships for women all aim to redress the imbalance. Opening Radcliffe's programs to men would render their purpose moot.

Radcliffe also plays an important role in advocating for women. The fact that a body exists to speak for women does not mean that women can't speak for themselves. Do such advocacy groups as the NAACP "send the message that [Black people] can't control their own affairs or be their own advocates"?

There must be an institution which provides a unified voice for women at Harvard University, though its existence does not imply that all women speak with the same voice on all issues.

We would like to see a new body, perhaps a Radcliffe Institute, which would help provide such a voice, administer the valuable Radcliffe programs and such facilities as the Schlesinger Library and the Bunting Institute.

We do not want a preservation of the sham of a nonexistent "Radcliffe College," which offers no concentrations and has no faculty body. But the name should be preserved, on the diplomas of all College men and women, for symbolic and historic reasons.

Radcliffe's legacy is a bittersweet one. It gave women an education, but in Harvard professors' spare time. It was a stepchild, but its alumnae should be honored, not swept under the rug.

Harvard University needs to remember both the proud legacy and the historically second class status of Radcliffe. Graduates of Harvard-Radcliffe should remember both the men and the women who preceded them.

The name on women's diplomas implies that they attended Radcliffe College, which they did not. The joint name on every undergraduate diploma would signify that the fully combined institution encompasses the ideals of both men's and women's education.