More than 100 Radcliffe College alumnae signed onto letters protesting a decision by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study to adopt the vernacular name Harvard Radcliffe Institute earlier this year.
The Institute announced the name change on Jan. 28, but several alumnae expressed concern after seeing it referred to as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute in a mailing in advance of Radcliffe Day later this month, after which multiple classes, including the classes of 1968 and 1971, sent letters to Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin.
In a letter from the class of 1968, nearly 80 alumnae spoke out against the name change.
âRecent mailings from Harvard University have referred to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study as the âHarvard Radcliffe Institute,ââ the letter read. âThe undersigned Radcliffe alumnae . are writing to deplore this in the strongest terms.â
Former Harvard Astronomy professor and Adams House Master William Liller â48 couldnât take his eyes off the stars.
In the early 1970s, Liller could be found early in the morning at Harvard College Observatory measuring the sizes of stars, putting in âmore than his share of the workâ each day to aid his graduate students, according to William R. Forman, one of Lillerâs Ph.D. advisees.
âYou would get there at 10 ⦠and there would be this long list of plates that heâd already been through,â Forman said. âHe was not there yelling at us, âYou got to do more.â No, he was just showing us that he was doing it, and we better get to work.â