Sage Hall was not equally accessible to all female students, however. In 1929, two Black female students, Pauline Davis and Ruth Peyton, were denied residency at Sage by the Dean of Women, R. Louise Fitch. The decision was upheld by Cornell President Livingston Farrand, who wrote in a letter to Ruth Peyton's mother that "... unfortunate as it may be, the placing of a colored student in one of the dormitories inevitably causes more embarrassment than satisfaction for such a student."[3]