"At our 35th reunion we wanted to know whether Harvard was as sexist as it was in our day," said Schmertzler, of the Committee for the Equality of Women at Harvard (CEWH).
Schmertzler and her reunited classmates said they weren't impressed with what they found here. So they formed CEWH in response.
Rose and Virginia S. Loo '96 are leading undergraduates on the same path. They founded and now lead the Committee for Women Faculty.
The committee is sponsoring a student-faculty rap session in the Lyman Common Room this Sunday.
They've already made plans for a debate at the Institute of Politics on November 30 over the push for tenuring women at Harvard.
For Wilson, the efforts of these groups cannot take effect quickly enough.
"Unless procedures are changed, [attempts to increase women faculty hiring] will be slow and frustrating," Wilson said. "It is moving too slowly for undergraduates that are here now."
But the alumni and undergraduate committees both face obstacles that could bring efforts to increase the number of tenured women to a near standstill.
A new federal law took effect last year making mandatory retirement ages illegal.
"You knew before that there would be movement in the pipeline and new opportunities to get tenure," said Vice President for College Relations Bonnie R. Clendenning. "That's not the case any more."
"You can't take a tenured professor and say, 'I'm sorry, we have to [fire] you because you're not a woman," said Clendenning.
And so the various committees have joined Radcliffe administrators in adopting a mantra of "awareness" and "proaction" to effect change in decisions over which they have no real say.
"The decision of who to hire and who not to hire is strictly a Harvard [administration] decision," Clendenning said. "We have no choice, only opinions."
According to an alumni association brochure entitled. "Taking a Stand for Women in the Harvard-Radcliffe Community." Harvard would have to tenure at least 12 women this year just to meet average standards set by other institutions in the country