However, faced with similar questions about exclusionary policies, Rita Nakashima Brock, the director of Radcliffe's all-female Bunting Institute, said last month that she would make the application process gender-neutral starting next year.

As a women-only post-graduate institution, the Bunting's legal status was dubious--federal Title IX law prohibits gender-based discrimination in most educational programs.

Title IX contains an exemption for traditionally all-female undergraduate colleges, though, so Radcliffe's undergraduate programs are probably safe from litigation.

But a new "Harvard without Radcliffe" would not have such an exemption, and Lewis stresses that the College's non-discrimination statement forbids gender distinctions in most programs, especially academic ones.

Radcliffe's nondiscrimination statement--which notes that Radcliffe makes personnel decisions "on the basis of an individual's qualifications to share in the College's educational objectives and contribute to its institutional needs"--mentions neither sex nor gender explicitly. The statement seems to allow Radcliffe to steer politely away from including men in all its programs--a policy that has remained unchanged since its founding.

The community Wilson heads may be forced to rethink such delicate language--even with a strong belief in its underlying principles.

"If you look around at what's happening in institutions that are already co-ed, there are from time to time events or activities that are single-sex," Wilson said in June. "You have a good reason for having something that focuses on just one set of people."