RecastingHarvard`sall

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7 mai 2016 - N°nc
Recasting Harvard’s all-male clubs
Elite student societies
must admit women or
face seriesof restrictions
BY STEPHANIE
SAUL
The elite, all-male student societies at
Harvard University known as final
clubs 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 singlegender clubs will be prohibited from
holding leadership positions on campus,
according to a statement released by
the university’s president, Drew G.
Faust. 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-gender 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.
Two months ago, a sexual assault task
force said the final clubs raised ‘‘serious
concerns’’ that required attention from
Harvard. Surveys conducted for the
university, as well as interviews with
undergraduate women, had found that
some final clubs fostered an atmosphere of misogyny, sexual misconduct
and entitlement.
Harvard is not the first university to
several other small northeastern institutions that banned such clubs years ago.
Even so, with fraternities at a number
of universities under fire as the focus of
sexual misconduct complaints, the decision by Harvard could spur other colleges to restrict single-gender clubs.
In announcing the decision, Dr. Faust
described it as another step in Harvard’s efforts to become a ‘‘truly
inclusive’’ community.
‘‘Over time,’’ she said, ‘‘Harvard
has
transformed its undergraduate student
body as it welcomed women, minorities,
international students and students of
limited financial means as an increasing
proportion of its population. But the
campus culture has not changed as rapidly as the student demography.’’
The final clubs have a storied history
at Harvard. Theodore Roosevelt was a
member of the oldest, the Porcellian
Club. Franklin D. Roosevelt was admitted to the Fly Club, also the choice of at
least two Massachusetts governors. The
Kennedy brothers — John, Robert and
Edward — were final club members.
Tensions with Harvard dated back
more than 30 years, when the male final
clubs relinquished
college benefits
rather than admit women. Last year,
aware of mounting pressure from the
university, two of the clubs — Fox and
Spee — voted to admit women.
Dr. Faust said last fall that she and
Harvard College’s dean, Rakesh Khurana, were weighing various options to
address exclusivity, sexual assault and
alcohol abuse in the clubs. And in
March, the administration delivered an
ultimatum that the clubs should become
coed by April 15.
In April, representatives of 13groups,
take action against single-gender clubs.
Fraternities and sororities were banned
at Amherst College in 2014,and Wesleyan University announced that same
year that it would require fraternities to
be coed. Middlebury College is among
including the six all-male final clubs,
met with Harvard administrators, who
had also considered banning the clubs
altogether.
The same day, the president of the
Porcellian Club’s alumni group, Charles
M. Storey, wrote in a letter to The Harvard Crimson, the student paper, that
‘‘forcing single-gender organizations to
accept members of the opposite sex
could potentially increase, not decrease,
the potential for sexual misconduct.’’
As well as criticizing many of the final
clubs as centers of sexual misconduct, a
March 8 report by the Task Force on the
Prevention of Sexual Assault said they
perpetuated a class divide on campus.
The clubs are ‘‘imbued with a certain
historical tradition that elevates members’ social status on campus,’’ creating
The university’s president said
the move was another step in
efforts to becomea ‘‘truly
inclusive’’ community.
an aura of sexual entitlement, the report
said. ‘‘A woman’s physical appearance
is often seen as the basis for entry to
these spaces, and female students described a general expectation that entering final club spaces could be read as
implicit agreement to have sexual encounters with members,’’ it added.
Male students who are not members
are excluded from parties at many of the
clubs, according to the report, enabling
‘‘a gender ratio that makes it easier for
members to have a sexual encounter.’’
Party themes and invitations have reflected misogynistic views and reinforced a sense of sexual entitlement, according to the report, which also pointed
to ‘‘competitive games between members where a man will ‘win’ a particular
woman or compete for the most sexual
triumphs.’’
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PAYS : États-unis
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PAGE(S) : 4
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JOURNALISTE : Stephanie Saul
PERIODICITE : Quotidien
7 mai 2016 - N°nc
CHARLIE MAHONEY
FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Mass. So-called final clubs have come under fire for fostering misogyny and sexual misconduct.
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