Merger: Not Just Yet

Some time in the first half of November, the Harvard-Radcliffe Joint Policy Committee, a little-known but powerful group, will issue a set of recommendations that will determine the course of the Harvard-Radcliffe corporate relationship for the next few years.

The Joint Policy Committee's recommendations need the approval of the Corporation and the Radcliffe Trustees, but since the most influential members of both Governing Boards are on the committee itself, the recommendations will probably not have much trouble passing.

It's not yet clear what the details of the recommendations will be, but by all indications their main thrust is clear--Radcliffe people have convinced Harvard people that full merger, while probably a good idea in the long run, is not the immediate answer. Harvard and Radcliffe seem likely to remain nominally seperate for the next few years.