"While [the process] was extremely time consuming, it was both collegial and without difficulty," she says.

But this week's deal leaves unresolved the fate of many prizes and fellowships offered by Radcliffe. Administrators say lawyers will be examining single-sex prizes one by one to see if Title IX law forces an end to gender restrictions.

Most importantly for Radcliffe traditionalists is the Fay Prize, offered annually to an undergraduate woman for outstanding academic and personal achievement. According to Dunn, officials will be deciding in the next month whether Radcliffe will relinquish control of the prize to Harvard.

"The Fay prize is important symbolically to Radcliffe. It is the highest honor that Radcliffe College has given, it is something I would like to see stay at the Institute," Sheerr says.