She encourages schools worried about WILL's Title IX implications to form similar, though separate, programs for men--a MILL program, so to speak.

Officials from both Duke and Dartmouth say attending this weekend's conference is no sign of commitment to establishing a program like WILL on their own campuses.

"We're going to go check it out, but it's all very preliminary," says Donna E. Lisker, director of the Duke women's center.

Both schools say they want to learn more about the program before deciding to go ahead, much less limit attendance to women.

Dean's Discretion

According to Giavanna Munafo, director of the women's center at Dartmouth, school policy there provides for a Title IX runaround that might allow a program like WILL, but only with the approval of Dartmouth's administration.

Munafo explains that Dartmouth officially examined single-sex programming and Title IX law three years ago. At that time, Dartmouth formulated a policy quite similar to Harvard's--but with one crucial exception.

Like Harvard, administrators declared that no program could be open to only one sex. But, they carefully announced, the dean would retain the right to allow single-sex programs when an overriding educational purpose could be served.