The name drew curses from the dance floor.

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Harvard is but the most prestigious wave in an ocean of unrest on college campuses regarding single-gender extracurricular groups. With fraternities caught up in allegations of sexual misconduct across the country, the movement to abolish them has gained momentum. In 2014, Wesleyan University ruled that its small group of residential fraternities must integrate women. Greek organizations have been banned altogether from Amherst College. Middlebury College has replaced them with mixed-gender “social houses.”

Studies underscore the connection between binge drinking, assault and Greek life. A 2007 study by John D. Foubert, a professor of higher education at Oklahoma State University, found that members of frats have three times the likelihood of committing rape as nonmembers. But whether abolishing male organizations improves the environment for women remains to be seen.

“There are lots of questions we don’t have research about,” Dr. Foubert said. Good metrics are hard to come by: A rise in sexual assault complaints can be a good sign — “the women trust the institution more,” he said — and “kids can drink alcohol in any setting undetected.”

Some experts worry that bad behavior would just move underground.

At Trinity College, a push to force single-gender organizations to go coed was abandoned last year, after the president, Joanne Berger-Sweeney, announced that the move appeared unlikely to foster the inclusion and equality that was hoped for. “In fact, communitywide dialogue concerning this issue has been divisive and counterproductive,” she wrote in a statement. A spokeswoman confirmed that the houses failed to attract the opposite sex, and alumni donors with Greek life ties had pulled back.

Despite the turmoil, nothing seismic happened when the Fox went coed, according to one member interviewed outside the clubhouse. (He would not give his full name because the club forbids members to speak to the news media.) “People were worried that, ‘Oh, we can’t act the same way, we can’t act up,’ ” he said. “But I don’t see it changing. I think it’s a cool experience with having a different perspective in the club.”

Some fear what their commitment to such clubs will mean for their future. Mitchell York briefly questioned his hope to punch this year when, as a sophomore, he’ll be eligible. But the promise of lifelong friends outweighed any hesitation. It even trumped the specter of reprisal, and any anxiety of being associated with a club at the cross hairs of a conversation about sexual assault.

That’s because the solution, Mr. York believes, lies in the club members themselves. “I know that I would never have an issue with what the final clubs are accused of,” he said. “People who are joining, and people who are in them currently, have to take on the responsibility to make sure that these things don’t happen.”