RADCLIFFE
COLLEGE
Cambridge, Massachusetts
 |
Counsel
on strategic planning and institutional repositioning |
|
Assistance
in negotiations with Harvard University –
which led to the establishment of the Radcliffe
Institute for Advanced Study, a new faculty
within Harvard University |
  NTHONY
KNERR & ASSOCIATES was asked by the Radcliffe
College Board of Trustees in November 1997 to
assist in preparations for, and to facilitate, a major
strategic planning retreat to be held in January 1998.
The goal of the retreat was to develop a set of major
options for repositioning the College and redefining
its relationship with Harvard University, to which
Radcliffe had delegated responsibility for the education
of undergraduate women almost three decades earlier.
In particular, Radcliffe wished to determine what
mission and structure would best transcend the limitations
of its situation, while firmly building upon its history
and opening possibilities for greater achievement.
Although an independent institution, Radcliffe had
been closely related to Harvard since its founding
in 1894, and it played a pre-eminent role in the higher
education of women that transcended its relationship
with Harvard. In addition to its historical role in
the education of undergraduate women, the College
was home to the Bunting Fellows Program, a community
of exceptional scholars and artists; the Schlesinger
Library, an unparalleled collection of books and manuscripts
devoted to women’s history; the Murray Research
Center, an archive of longitudinal social science
studies; and the Public Policy Institute, focused
on the practical applications of public policy research.
| The
new Radcliffe Institute is playing
a highly important role within Harvard,
one that carries on its dedication
to intellectual excellence and to
women. |
|
|
Following
the planning retreat, the Radcliffe Board of Trustees
authorized opening discussions with Harvard about
a possible new set of relationships as it likewise
pursued a number of other strategic options. After
almost a year and a half of intensive discussions,
Radcliffe and Harvard agreed in April 1999 to a merger,
in which the College would become the Radcliffe Institute
for Advanced Study within Harvard University. The
new Institute is dedicated to the creation of knowledge
in every field of learning, the professions and the
creative arts, sustaining within that broad definition
of purpose a special commitment to the study of women,
gender and society. The merger became effective in
October 1999.
With the merger, Radcliffe ended its existence as
a separate, independent corporation and became the
youngest of the ten faculties within Harvard, one
of just a handful of institutes of advanced study
in the world and the only institute for advanced study
within a research university.
ANTHONY KNERR & ASSOCIATES served as strategic
counsel to the Radcliffe Board throughout the merger
discussions. Our work involved preparation of options
papers; analysis of alternative structural and funding
arrangements; delineation of mission, focus and program
for the new Institute; and coordination of merger
discussions within Radcliffe. We worked closely with
the Radcliffe Board of Trustees; the President and
senior executive staff of Radcliffe; members of the
Harvard Corporation; and the President and other key
officers of Harvard throughout the merger process.
The new Radcliffe Institute is playing a highly important
role within Harvard, one that carries on its dedication
to intellectual excellence and to women. Under the
leadership of its first Dean, Drew Gilpin Faust, the
Institute has made a number of important joint academic
appointments with other faculties in the University;
begun to increase substantially the number of visiting
Fellows; and reshaped its research and postgraduate
programs. It has also initiated a master planning
process; begun to determine how it can best increase
the quality and importance of interdisciplinary studies
at the University; and contribute further to the richness
of intellectual life at Harvard.
The strategic transformation of Radcliffe has been
profound: from an independent college with
a distinguished history but an ambiguous role and
mission to an institute of advanced study within
a leading research university with a special focus
on the study of women, gender and society. We are
pleased to have played a key role in all aspects of
delineating and realizing this transformation.
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