"Thursday night after Thursday night, I peek my head in [the RUS meeting], and I see a handful of passionate people--but not many," March said. "If you don't sustain a commitment because of other distractions, obviously, you are going to be out of the conversation."

One student said not only was she not reassured, but she felt "more unsettled" after the meeting.

"I know more specifically what I'm afraid of," said Rabia S. Belt '01.

At a gathering just prior to the meeting with Wilson, March told members of her student Dean's Advisory Committee that the one-year experimental committee will not be continuing in its current form.

Organized to help publicize Radcliffe events in the Houses, March said Radcliffe no longer needs a student group to "proselytize and carry our word forward."

But she said a new group might be organized next fall to explore the role of undergraduates at the Radcliffe Institute.

Asked about the future of specific undergraduate programs--including RUS, Education for Action and externships--Wilson said repeatedly that many details about the new Institute and its relationship to undergraduates would be worked out in talks over the course of the next year.

She also held out the possibility that some guarantees for RUS and other undergraduates could be written into the final, legally binding agreement.