Undergrads Untouched By Radcliffe’s Changes

The women of 1977 went to Harvard classes, lived in Harvard Houses and studied in Harvard libraries.

But they were admitted to and graduated from Radcliffe College—and many refer to themelves as Radcliffe alumnae.

Still, 25 years later, a number of ’Cliffies continue to question their association with their nominal alma mater.

Today, some say they are surprised or disappointed with the 1999 merger and dissolution of Radcliffe College and had hoped that Radcliffe could be an advocate for women at Harvard.

At the same time, however, many graduates say they only rarely saw Radcliffe as an important force in their lives during their undergraduate years.

As the second class to have totally coeducational residences, women in the Class of 1977—who graduated in the year that Radcliffe officially ceded responsiblity for female undergraduates to Harvard—identified almost entirely with Harvard.

‘Male Bastion’

In the early ’70s, alums and some administrators had expressed fear that if “equal access” admissions became a reality, the school would educate fewer world leaders and receive fewer donations from wealthy alums.

“They kept saying ‘men won’t give to Harvard if their sons don’t come,’” Diana Krumholz McDonald ’77 says, recalling arguments made at events for alums, at football games, and in Harvard Magazine letters to the editor.

A 1971 article in The Harvard Crimson called Harvard Yard a “male bastion for the past 335 years.”

In the same year, a “non-merger merger” officially put Harvard in charge of the dorm life of Radcliffe women, and the class of 1977 was the second class whose women were integrated into both the Houses and the first-year dorms.

In 1972, then-Harvard President Derek Bok made the controversial decision to aim for an admissions ratio of 2.5 men for every woman, down from the four-to-one ratio of previous years.

In 1975, the Harvard and Radcliffe admissions offices officially merged and for the rest of the ’70s, female-to-male ratios inched closer and closer to one-to-one.

But ’Cliffies were less socioeconomically diverse than their Harvard counterparts, because the school had a smaller endowment and less funding for financial aid. So in 1977, in their second “non-merger merger” agreement, Harvard agreed to pick up the tab for more than half of Radcliffe’s financial aid.

The agreement of 1977 formalized Harvard’s responsibility for education of female undergraduates—a responsibility that by then had long been shifted—leaving Radcliffe with an endowment but no real definition.

According to Patricia Albjerg Graham, who negotiated the deal for Radcliffe, two main issues dominated the 1977 “non-merger merger”—the abolition of admissions quotas on women and maintenance of a separate endowment for Radcliffe, which she says Harvard wanted to take.

“The trick was to hang onto the endowment until the vision emerged, and it took 25 years,” Graham says, referring to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study that formed after the final 1999 merger.

Cohabitational Bliss

Despite the push to increase the number of women on campus, class of ’77 ’Cliffies say they were outnumbered in most dormitories and classes.

Housing integration proved trying both for administrators, who faced difficult logistical issues, and students, who became the agents of social reform.

Even so, most of the class was “militantly coeducational,” according to McDonald.

The Quad had roughly a one-to-one ratio of men to women, while each of the River Houses had a ratio in the range of four-to-one.

“[The River House ratios] didn’t make for a really good social life because the men felt like you were infringing on their turf,” says McDonald, a Quincy house alum.

Many recall Kirkland as a jock-filled House notoriously unfriendly to women. Men would actually pound on their glasses with forks whenever a woman entered Kirkland dining hall, McDonald says.

But many women who began their undergraduate careers in the Quad later transferred to the River Houses despite social friction and occasional sexism.

Lauren Gibbs ’77, a New York native who said she liked her first year in the Quad because of its feminist and politically active feel, transferred to Lowell House her sophomore year because of its central location.

“It was sort of like the difference between the city and the suburbs,” she says. “But part of me felt like I should have remained up at Radcliffe.”

Even though they were outnumbered by men at Harvard on the weekdays, according to McDonald, the weekends seemed to bring about a demographic shift.

At weekend parties, she says, ’Cliffies often felt stiff romantic competition from the droves of Wellesley women who would flood the campus.

“You could immediately tell who was Radcliffe and who was Wellesley because the Wellesley girls dressed up,” McDonald says.

Susan Oliver ’78 also recalls a visible difference between ’Cliffies and women from other campuses.

“It had a lot to do with makeup perfume and clothing,” Oliver says. “It was really a world where the joke used to be dressing up was putting a bra on.”

Oliver says that the weekends were particularly desolate times in the Square.

“There was a very big weekend presence of women from other campuses coming to Harvard,” Oliver says. “And there seemed to be a very large exodus of men to other campuses.”

Leader of the Pack

At the time, Radcliffe had its own president, Matina Horner, a young former assistant professor of psychology. Horner’s signature work was a study showing that women had a fear of success—work that resonated with but alarmed many ’77 women.

Gibb says she found the theory which brought Horner fame “crippling” and “limiting.”

But on a personal level, Horner was generally well-loved.

“She was wonderful—we really loved her. She was warm and sort of like a mother figure at that time,” McDonald says.

And simply having a female president on campus gave them a role model, some ’Cliffies say.

“It was important for me and for many of us to have some sort of identifiable female leader of that environment,” says Susan Oliver ’78.

Many alums recall Radcliffe-arranged social events and panels.

“There were a few times when president Matina Horner had special presentations for the women,” Oliver says. “It was a message—everything from hand wringing to actual how-tos about managing a combination of work and families.” Ever After

While it might not have been before, some say Radcliffe became a bigger part of their lives following graduation.

“I’ve heard many alumnae say this: it was more after we left Harvard that the Radcliffe tie became meaningful and important,” says Oliver, who serves as president of Chicago’s Radcliffe Club.

Similarly, Anne Fletcher Grizzle ’77, who heads up a Radcliffe Alumnae group in Houston, says that her relationship with Radcliffe solidified only after she graduated.

“I didn’t have a strong sense of Radcliffe when I was there,” she says. But her alumnae group has “been a wonderful interesting group of women to stay connected with here in Houston.”

Members of the class of ’77 are solicited by both Harvard and Radcliffe for donations, and while some say they will only give to Radcliffe, many say that they give mostly to Harvard in order to support the College.

Hall says that she was “surprised” and a “little sad” to see Radcliffe College dissolved in the 1999 merger.

“I felt affection for this thing called Radcliffe,” Hall says. “Plus there were all these resources for women, none of which I used, but I was glad that they were there.”

Hall says that she’s “not even sure where the money goes” when she gives to Radcliffe, and she gives to Harvard to support the institution responsible for her education.

“I feel like the money that I give to Harvard is supporting male and female students,” Hall says.

For the first time this year, donations that alums make to Radcliffe count toward class funds—a change which McDonald says is “about time.”

Karen Firestone ’77 says, in her mind, the merger had happened before she arrived.

“I sort of assumed it had all happened,” Firestone says. “In my mind, Radcliffe was a part of Harvard.”

And Firestone has donated accordingly.

“I’ve given a small amount to Radcliffe,” Firestone says. “My greater investment had been with Harvard.”

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.