For the last seven years, the Women's Science Alliance has brought together 35 incoming female first-year students for an intensive weeklong program to study science and the experience of women in the sciences at Harvard.

No longer. Now that Harvard and Radcliffe have merged, Harvard says the Women's Science Alliance--and programs like it--are illegal because they discriminate against men. Administrators have already told Radcliffe programs that once admitted only women that they must open their ranks to men.

But Harvard's assertion is based on a particular interpretation of Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments--a law fraught with gray areas. Since its inception, universities and colleges across the country have struggled to afford male and female students unique educational opportunities while still staying within the law.

But Harvard interprets Title IX more stringently than others. Schools like Dartmouth and Brown have proven more willing to consider single-sex educational programs--like the Women's Science Alliance--as part of the mission of a co-educational university. At several other universities, a single-sex Science Alliance could still have a future.

It's the Law

Harvard's reasoning goes a little like this: Title IX prohibits all educational institutions that receive federal funds from operating any program that discriminates on the basis of sex. Radcliffe's organizations were exempt from Title IX because the law explicitly allows such programming at traditionally single-sex colleges.

But the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study that now sits in Radcliffe College's place has no Title IX exemption.

As Harvard sees it, to join the College, all Radcliffe programs must now open their doors to men. Otherwise, Harvard could be open to a lawsuit.