One of Harvard’s most prestigious “final clubs” has voted to remain single-gender, despite threats from Harvard’s administration to exclude its members from scholarships and student government.
Undergraduate embers of the elite, all-male “Fox Club” voted (reluctantly) last year to admit some women, after pressure from the administration to go co-ed reached a fever pitch. But the graduate members, who have power to overrule an undergraduate vote, decided to switch back, challenging the administration to enforce their new policy against single-gender clubs.
Nine women who were admitted on a provisional basis last year will stay in contention for admission to club, but the club needed a two-thirds majority vote to make the gender-based change official. Support for going co-ed was “stronger than expected,” they told The College Fix, but not enough to change the policy.
This means, of course, that the Fox Club may be one of the first to face off against the administration’s new “gender-based discrimination” policy, which prohibits any member of an elite, single-gender, non-curricular club or Greek society from applying for scholarships, holding the position of captain on one of Harvard’s sports teams, or holding a position in student government.
Final clubs have existed for decades on Harvard’s campus, and the decision to outlaw single-gender clubs was a paean to social justice warriors who insisted the exclusive organizations encourage sexual assault on campus.
Since announcing the policy, Harvard’s administration has met mostly with condemnation, from students who say Harvard’s policy (which extends to clubs not under Harvard’s control) restricts their right to free association. Even experts on campus sexual assault said the policy was ridiculous, designed to fulfill Harvard’s “beau ideal” of itself.