Four Orthodox Jewish students at Yale are...

Four Orthodox Jewish students at Yale are preparing to go to court because that university requires students to live in coeducational campus dorms. This conflicts with the students’ beliefs that unrelated men and women shouldn’t live under these arrangements.

Yale instituted its residency policy in 1996, attempting to eliminate student segregation. Although they have offered the Orthodox students rooms on single-sex floors, the students have rejected the offer because there are no rules preventing roommates from bringing sexual partners into the dorm rooms.

The situation of the Yale students is not unique. In a Boston hospital, a Muslim mother remaining around the clock with her post-operative son was compelled to leave her child’s bedside when another boy was moved into the same room and his father planned to remain overnight, too. Muslim taboos regarding interaction between nonrelated members of the opposite sex had to be maintained, so the woman had to leave. Fortunately, the hospital was able to reassign the Muslim family to another room.

Similarly, Jim, an Anglo American college student unexpectedly stopped in to visit his Ecuadorian classmate, Stella. She was home alone, and when her father arrived, he exploded with rage. According to his customs, an unmarried female’s reputation could be easily ruined if the community discovered that she had been alone in the company of a man.