Word: institutionalize
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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By the end of the decade, a group of Cambridge residents approached Eliot to ask for an institution of higher education comparable to Harvard where they could send their daughters. They proposed a separate women's "annex" that would employ Harvard professors to teach its classes.
Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, widow of Harvard naturalist Louis Agassiz, was named the first president of the Annex. Under Agassiz's tenure, Radcliffe expanded from a tiny institution on Appian Way with 27 students and one small building to a fully chartered college located in a converted mansion, Fay House.
A committee of "seven ladies," which included Elizabeth Cary Agassiz and Alice Mary Longfellow, advertised "Private Collegiate Instruction for Women" in 1879, responding to the need for advanced educational opportunities for female students. This "experiment," known familiarly as the Harvard Annex, became a chartered Institution, Radcliffe College, in 1894.
Seven presidents have since served the institution, averaging tenures of 17 years. Linda S. Wilson announced her intention to resign in June. Harvard and Radcliffe officials announced jointly that a new Radcliffe Institute will be led by a dean who reports to the University president.
"Ten years is a long time to stay in this seat," she said. "I want to invest everything I can in this institution, and this is one way I can do it."