Radcliffe College Director of Communications Lyn Chamberlin will step down today after five years on the job to become the director of business development at MIT's Technology Review.

Chamberlin will be the third high-ranking administrator to leave Radcliffe in the last six months--six months in which the institution has entered a soul-searching campaign to consider shedding its college label and establishing a new relationship with Harvard.

In mid-December, seven-year veteran Radcliffe Vice President for Finance and Administration Nancy J. Dunn left the 119-year old institution to become the Chief Financial Officer of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Washington, D.C.

In June, Director of Development Martha Ann Fuller left Radcliffe to assuming the position of assistant dean for development at the school of humanities and social sciences at MIT.

At least one Radcliffe source called the recent departures a "mass exodus," characterizing a situation in which those who should be most interested in helping build a newly energized Radcliffe of the future are instead "jumping for the lifeboats."

But other Radcliffe officials insist the departures are unconnected, an example instead of the natural ebb and flow of staff hirings at academic institutions.

"It's common in the academic world for the most seasoned faculty to have tenure and stay forever, but everyone else is part of the market," said Vice President for College Relations Bonnie R. Clendenning. "Not only do people leave, but people come."

Radcliffe's Office of Communications notes that a new director of the Murray Research Center has been named and will be announced next week. The position has been officially vacant for the past semester, with Assistant Director Jacquelyn James pinch-hitting in the role.

According to Clendenning, Radcliffe is constantly fighting off "corporate raiders," interested in hiring away its excellent staff.

"We wouldn't want people who are so ill thought of by their community that nobody wants them," she said.

Yet, Chamberlin said a climate currently exists at Radcliffe which encourages good people to look for attractive offers elsewhere.

"I did not feel recognized for what I brought to the table, and many people are devalued in that way to the great detriment of this institution," she said.

Chamberlin's new position will involve promoting awareness of the Technology Review, which serves both as MIT's alumni magazine and a competitor to Fast Company and Forbes.

"It was very hard to turn down. It combines all of my interests--technology, publishing, business within a premier academic environment," Chamberlin said.

But she said a sense of impatience with Radcliffe's lack of vision contributed to her decision to move.

"There was nothing to keep me here. The opportunity presented to me [at MIT] was more compelling to me than the one at Radcliffe," she said. "In order to retain the kind of people that will move this institution forward, they need to be given authority as well as responsibility--and be respected for their professional skill and knowledge."