Some Harvard students join "Finals Clubs", which are off-campus social clubs. Harvard does not recognize Finals Clubs or fraternities or sororities and is now trying to stop students from joining them by not letting members hold certain positions or apply for certain scholarships. I am dismayed by the extent to which Harvard is trying to run the lives of its students.
Harvard Restrictions Could Reshape Exclusive Student ClubsBy STEPHANIE SAUL
New York Times
MAY 6, 2016
The all-male final clubs at Harvard University have long been bastions of money, power and privilege. But on Friday, 225 years after the oldest club was founded, the university announced restrictions on the organizations that could ultimately be their undoing, or at least drastically change their character by forcing them to become coed.
Starting with the class that enters Harvard in fall 2017, members of single-sex clubs will be prohibited from holding leadership positions on campus, according to a statement released by the university’s president, Drew G. Faust. This would include athletic team captains; many club members have historically been captains. Members will also be barred from receiving the official recommendations required for prestigious postgraduate fellowships and scholarships, such as the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships, the statement said.
The new rules will apply not only to the six male final clubs, but also to other single-sex organizations, including five women’s final clubs and nine sororities and fraternities. An estimated 30 percent of undergraduates at Harvard belong to such clubs. Two other formerly male final clubs have already voted to admit women.
Richard T. Porteus, a member of the Harvard Class of 1978 and graduate president of one of the final clubs, the Fly Club, said preliminary discussions were underway with lawyers to challenge the new rules under the theory that they infringe on the right to free association.
