the likely change from 2009. Harvard has set its endowment distribution to the various schools at a lower level, but other factors—sponsored-research support, the volume of giving—will still affect revenues and expenses. Most schools have some re- serves (for instance, see “FAS’s Progress— and Prognosis,” November-December 2009, page 58) to help buffer the budget cuts they would face otherwise. Shore also pointed to longer-term op- portunities for administrative savings, in functions ranging from procurement to the provision of human-resources exper- tise to information systems and technol- ogy. The goal, he said, is not simply to cen- tralize, but to find the best performers and Panelists at the tenth-anniversary symposium discuss how their time as practices, adopt “different aggregations of Radcliffe’sN ew Life R inal d o Radcliffe Fellows helped them bridge activities,” and realize economies across ony boundaries between genres. From left to T the institution. Such savings, he said, are Ten years ago, Radcliffe ceased to ex- right: English professor Leah Price, painter meant to support academic aims—pre- ist as a college. But reincarnated as the Beverly McIver, filmmaker Jeanne Jordan, serving junior-faculty slots, for example: Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study composer Tarik O’Regan, filmmakerA nne just one item among those at the core of (RIAS), it has done anything but fade qui- Makepeace, and lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim. by P hotograph Harvard’s mission. etly into history. Where some saw the end Arthur. In fact, Harvard Overseer Susan From a financial manager’s perspective, of an era, those guiding Radcliffe forward Wallach ’68, J.D. ’71, who was a member Shore said, the new reality means main- saw the potential for a new kind of great- of the Radcliffe College Board of Trust- taining a much more flexible posture to- ness. Both the trustees of Radcliffe College ees at the time of the merger, noted at the ward plans and budgets, testing diverse and those acting on Harvard’s behalf “re- symposium, “It is harder to get a Radcliffe scenarios at different revenue levels, and ally did want to create something not just Fellowship than it is to get into Harvard helping the whole community cope with constructive, but imaginative and power- College.” The program—which accepts heightened uncertainty by assuring that ful,” Neil L. Rudenstine, the University’s 6 percent of applicants, compared to the Harvard can be kept appropriately nimble. president at the time of the institute’s cre- College’s 7 percent—holds such strong A Financial Management Committee (ex- ation, recalled at a symposium held Octo- appeal, Grosz said, because Radcliffe Fel- panded to tap alumni and faculty exper- ber 8 and 9 to mark its tenth birthday. lows “don’t do their work isolated, on their tise, and including both Rothenberg and Those founders wanted “a refuge for own. They do it as part of a community of HMC president and CEO Jane Mendillo) scholars” that would also be “an active scholars, scientists, and artists.” is better integrating University and en- participant in advancing the University’s The program also enriches Harvard’s dowment perspectives on risk, risk man- intellectual agenda,” the institute’s cur- academic life through fellows’ talks and agement, liquidity, and investment op- rent dean, Barbara J. Grosz, said at the their participation in academic conferenc- portunities. It advises Shore himself, Katie symposium. Grosz, who is also Higgins es, among other things. Radcliffe profes- Lapp (the new executive vice president), professor of natural sciences, joined the sorships also help the University recruit and through them, President Drew Faust institute in 2001 as its first dean of science. sought-after scholars with the prospect and the Corporation, where financial poli- (She became dean in 2008, after inaugural of spending two years (of their first five cies and endowment distributions are fi- dean Drew Faust left for higher office.) In as Harvard faculty members) as Radcliffe nally vetted and approved. a November interview, Grosz said RIAS Fellows. In any event, Shore said, the critical bal- had met its major goals for its first de- The institute “plays an especially im- ance remained the same: not cutting bud- cade: establishing an excellent fellowship portant role for undergraduates interested gets so deeply now that essential activities program that draws scholars from a wide in pursuing academic careers” by enabling were irreparably harmed, but not treading range of fields and advances thinking in interaction with scholars from around so lightly that cutting would have to extend culturally current areas such as stem-cell the world, says Scott Duke Kominers ’09, many years into the future to restore distri- science and new media. The task for the who regularly attended fellows’ presen- butions from the now-reduced endowment next 10 years, she said, is rounding out the tations, lectures, and teas at RIAS as an to a sustainable level. If the balance can be balance of RIAS’s offerings and integrat- undergraduate—and continues to do so set properly, he said, once investment re- ing them more fully within Harvard. as a first-year student in the business-eco- turns strengthen, Harvard will find itself That the fellowship program has blos- nomics Ph.D. program offered through the sooner able to increase those distributions somed is clear from the list of honors won Business School and the Graduate School once again, to support essential academic by past fellows, including at least five of Arts and Sciences. work and innovations. Pulitzers, 14 Guggenheims, and one Mac- The fellows are, thus, not “individu-
Harvard Magazine 51 john harvard’s journal als isolated from the life of the Univer- are working with their Harvard faculty before Faust’s appointment) said, “While sity, ” but “integral to the academic life of peers to solicit proposals for themed con- men aren’t excluded, women are still at the Harvard”—precisely what RIAS’s framers ferences (open to the public) and seminars center.” envisioned, said symposium speaker Har- (in which scholars from around the world, In some ways, status as an institute has vey V. Fineberg, who was University pro- and often from different disciplines, as- added to Radcliffe’s value as a resource for vost at the time of the merger. Today, says semble at RIAS to share their work with those who study women’s issues. As an ex- Grosz, “We need to more fully realize our each other). The coming year’s offerings ample, Dunn cited the expanded holdings role as an integral part of the University— include a conference on gender and space of the Schlesinger Library on the History one that fosters and enhances the academic in April, and another, on the history and of Women in America: during the last de- work of Harvard faculty.” future of the book, in October. cade, increased funding has enabled the To that end, RIAS has launched a suite library to acquire 23, 400 printed volumes, of Academic Engagement Programs (AEP), Speakers at the anniversary symposium some 8,700 audiovisual items, and 1,800 with six Harvard faculty members (two used archival sources to illuminate not only manuscripts. The library is also venturing each in the arts and humanities, social sci- how people saw Radcliffe—and what its into new media, devising ways to make ences, and natural sciences) appointed as leaders and its students wanted it to be— personal archives in digital formats (e.g., leaders. For one example, the directors throughout its history, but also the chang- e-mail) accessible to researchers; creating for the social sciences—Aetna professor of ing role of women at Harvard. Reading a website that showcases the contents of public policy and corporate management from a Crimson article published her fresh- women’s travel diaries from the library col- Brigitte Madrian and Ford professor of the man year, journalist and cultural critic Su- lections; and archiving blogs that feature social sciences Robert J. Sampson—are lead- san Faludi ’81, RF ’09, demonstrated how underrepresented voices and topics. ing a multidisciplinary group of scholars in differently women were seen on campus Supporting scholars and artists; em- designing the Boston-based “City as Social even then. Chronicling a meeting of the phasizing interdisciplinary collaboration; Science Laboratory” initiative, which will Harvard Dames, a group for graduate stu- working at the leading edge of science; bring together academics, policymakers, and dents’ wives, the article quoted the club’s forging ahead into new media: this list city leaders for policy and program devel- president as saying it had been founded “to of the institute’s top priorities matches opment in areas such as crime, education, keep wives off their husbands’ backs dur- closely the priorities of the University as a healthcare, and housing. ing exam time.” whole. This echo surely stems in part from Meanwhile, without backing away from Much has changed, and Radcliffe’s grad- the fact that in Faust, both entities have the heavy emphasis it placed on science uates and the College itself were instru- had a common leader. But RIAS, smaller programming in its first decade, RIAS is mental in those changes. Even as its work and nimbler, has in some respects leapt also aiming to bring the social sciences and cuts across all disciplines, the institute has ahead of the University. As Fineberg put it: the humanities to the forefront. Though held onto its Radcliffe heritage through “Harvard has been moving to become more the fellowship program always included programming on women and gender and like Radcliffe.” a strong contingent of artists—reflected by selecting fellows who focus on these in a riveting panel on fiction writing and issues. Speaking at the symposium via Read a longer account of the tenth-anniversary rich presentations of artworks during the video from Paris, Mary Maples Dunn (the symposium, with links to other relevant articles and anniversary symposium—the AEP leaders institute’s interim dean in its earliest days, websites, at harvardmagazine.com/radcliffe-10th.
the undergraduate to thesis research. Never have I heard so much opposition to an extended vaca- tion. The reality is that, no matter how much January Reading Harvard undergraduates complain about strictures and requirements in general, we actually tend to like being told what by spencer lenfield ’12 to do. We thrive on requirements, regu- lations, and “structured” programs of all sorts: after all, most of us got into Harvard here will be no intersession of criticism from undergraduates. Edito- by being very good at following them. It at Harvard College this year. rial upon ardent editorial ran in the Crim- is consequently unsurprising that many Instead, due to calendar reform son lamenting the demise of “J-Term” and students balked at having to occupy and budget shortfalls, we will its promise of “structured programming.” themselves for an entire month, preferring haveT nearly the entire month of January Some 1,400 students petitioned feverishly instead that the University take on that as part of our winter break, rather than to be allowed to stay on campus in Janu- responsibility. Yet all is not lost. Most un- elective academic options as originally ary anyway; nearly all are being allowed dergraduates also got in by having a strong planned. This drew a surprising amount to do so, for reasons ranging from sports self-motivated streak, and will figure out
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