The merger between Harvard and Radcliffe places the College in a situation unlike that of other schools dealing with Title IX. Nowhere else in recent memory has a school had to transition abruptly from a legally defined single sex institution (complete with Title IX exemption) to a co-educational one.

And for now, Harvard will proceed carefully, looking to its lawyers to help it steer clear of legal land mines.

"Harvard will not do anything which its best legal counselors advise us would be illegal under Title IX," Dean Lewis writes in an e-mail message.

For Lewis, Title IX simply reinforces a general principle of open access he has applied at the College for years.

"We have our own standards of equity that may well be stronger than the congressionally mandated standards in some cases," he says. "As a general matter, [I] believe that any gender restrictions that can be lifted, should be lifted."

But women involved in programs like the Women's Science Alliance say that critical mentoring opportunities will forever be lost as Radcliffe's programs become Harvard's and are forced to go co-ed.

"This is the last year for Science Alliance as it exists now," says Elizabeth D. Chao '00, president of Women in Science at Harvard and Radcliffe (WISHR) and herself a former participant and organizer of the Alliance. "I find that very disappointing. You lose the mentoring aspect. You lose the camaraderie."