A College By Any Other Name

The greatest impact of a change in Radcliffe's status as an educational institution is not the absence of Linda Wilson's signature on women's diplomas, nor even new landlord-tenant relations. Rather, undergraduates will most feel the effect of the demotion of Radcliffe from the undergraduate educational sphere in a campus-wide nomenclature thrown into disarray.

Among the worse casualties are those groups specific to Radcliffe. What will happen to RUS (Radcliffe Union of Students)? Perhaps it will become HUS and join a slimmer HUC (Harvard Undergraduate Council), or perhaps RUS will cease to exist at all. Quite possibly the singers of Radcliffe Choral Society (RCS) may one day become confused with the technologists in the Harvard Computer Society (HCS). The Radcliffe Pitches will also suffer a deep identity crisis.

One Radcliffe organization which stands to gain: The tongue-tangling ABRW (Association of Black Radcliffe Women) could be renamed a more pronounceable and slightly French-sounding BWAH (Black Women's Association of Harvard).

But on a more subtle level, many students have come to abhor and cherish the "R" of Radcliffe in creating acronyms for their groups. The hard-to-pronounce double constant combo HR has provided struggle and relief in creating acronyms. There are some clear winners and losers.

One winner: WISHR (Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe) can finally chop off the gangly R appendage to become the more aspirational and streamlined WISH. However, the R dreaded by some is cherished by others. Some organizations depend on the vestigial R to add not only enunciation but definition to their names. Without Radcliffe, the skygazers in STAHR (Student Astronomers of Harvard-Radcliffe) will become members of STAH; then again, this isn't necessarily an inaccurate title for a group Hah-vahd celestial admirers.

The loss of Radcliffe in the HR combination opens up whole new doors of fun acronyms. HRSAS (the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Arab Students) could become a sassy-sounding SASH (Society of Arab Students at Harvard). And sadly, musical organizations seem to be particularly vulnerable to less flattering connotations in this new Radcliffe-less world. The elegantly constructed HARMONY acronym (Harvard and Radcliffe Musical Outreach to Neighborhood Youth) will be rechristened to a less charitable Harvard MONY. And alas! Our prestigious philharmonic, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HO), will be condensed to HO.