Yesterday, November 29, the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights dismissed a George Washington University law professor’s complaint that The Catholic University of America (CUA) committed sex discrimination when it decided to return to single-sex dormitories.

The D.C. Human Rights Office dismissed Banzhaf’s complaint this week, according to The Washington Post, “writing that single-sex dorms are not discriminatory because they do not treat men and women differently.  The order says that under Banzhaf’s reasoning, the university would be forced to abandon single-sex sports teams, locker rooms and bathrooms.”

“Catholic University’s return to single-sex dormitories puts the Catholic Church’s teaching into practice in a concrete way,” continued Reilly.  “This ruling dispels an activist attorney’s ridiculous claims and makes it easier for Catholic colleges and universities across the country to follow the lead of the American bishops’ university.”

Last June, CUA president John Garvey wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which he announced that the University would be returning to the policy of single-sex student residences on campus to combat the problems of binge drinking and hooking up.  Soon after Garvey’s announcement, John Banzhaf, professor of law at George Washington University, claimed that CUA’s move constituted discrimination under the D.C Human Rights Act.

CNS president Patrick J. Reilly debated Banzhaf on Fox News in support of CUA’s position and defended single-sex dorms in columns in The Washington Times and Crisis Magazine. CNS also issued a special report identifying the presence of a hook-up culture on Catholic campuses and warning of the emotional and physical costs of casual sex among students.  The report, published by CNS’s Center for the Advancement of Catholic Higher Education, reviews the social science literature that has been published over the course of the last twenty years on student behavior and college policies, including the impact of single-sex residences.  The report, titled “The ‘Hook-Up’ Culture on Catholic Campuses,” is available at the Center’s website here.

The Cardinal Newman Society commissioned and released a legal memo in July from Alliance Defense Fund attorney Dale Schowengerdt which demonstrated that CUA’s dorm decision was not a form of discrimination.  The memo argued, “As long as a college does not subject either men or women to particular disadvantages or unequal burdens, there is no sex discrimination.  Moreover, a religious school's right to maintain separate living quarters for men and women is protected by the Constitution and federal law.”  The memo is available online here.

In September, CUA’s The Tower reported that the University’s legal representatives defended its reasons for the switch to single-sex dorms at a closed-door meeting with the Human Rights Office. When asked about the case, the University’s response, in the words of public affairs vice president Victor Nakas, was, “We remain confident that under local and federal law we have every right to move forward with same-sex dorms.”