<p>I agree with the policy. And yes, I do think the size of the inconvenience is relevant. </p>
<p>I think the entire Harvard community benefits from providing an environment in which women could could not otherwise use facilities now can. This makes for an more inclusive university, and that benefits the entire student body.</p>
<p>If men had a reason to desire this accommodation it should also be respected.</p>
<p>If those “inconvenienced” could show that this policy produced real hardship, then I think there would be something to talk about.</p>
<p>Cornell does not provide single-sex dorms for men.</p>
<p>The reason why that single-sex dorm for women exists is that the building was endowed specifically for the purpose of serving as women’s housing, many decades ago when the number of women who could attend Cornell was limited because of a lack of housing for them. (According to the standards of the time, it was considered acceptable for men students to live in the community, but women students were expected to live on campus.) A donor endowed the building in order to make it possible for more women to attend Cornell. The building can never be used for any purpose other than women’s housing.</p>
<p>I suppose that if there were a demand for men-only housing at Cornell, the university would provide it. But the all-women’s dorm does not exist because students are demanding it; it exists for historical reasons, as I described above. Many of the women who live there would prefer to have been assigned to co-ed dorms, but Cornell is stuck with this building that can only be used for women.</p>
<p>I do not think that fairness requires Cornell to either 1) demolish a perfectly good dormitory, or 2) create an all-men’s dormitory that people don’t want.</p>
<p>By the way, my daughter lives in that all-women’s building this year. She loves it. Not because it’s all women, but because it has lots of singles, and the rooms are huge. She wishes she could stay there next year, but it’s an all-freshman dorm, so she will have to move elsewhere (to a double in a co-ed building that’s only 25 square feet larger than her current enormous single).</p>
<p>Wasn’t there an issue at Yale a couple of years ago about Orthodox Jewish women wanting a designated female dorm or something like that? I can’t remember the particulars.</p>