Harvard to ban members of single-sex clubs from leadership roles
Source: Reuters
Harvard to ban members of single-sex clubs from leadership roles
May 6, 2016
BOSTON (Reuters) - Harvard University will prohibit members of single-sex clubs, fraternities and sororities, from serving in leadership roles beginning in the fall of 2017 in an effort to discourage sexual discrimination on campus, officials said on Friday.
The Ivy League school has long been trying to stamp out single-sex clubs, which it stopped formally recognizing in 1984, though the groups known as "final clubs" as well as some fraternities and sororities have held their place on its Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus.
The new rules are intended to end longstanding practices of exclusion at the elite university, whose alumni are plentiful in high-level positions in U.S. business and politics.
"Students will decide for themselves whether to engage with these organizations, as members or otherwise," Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust said in an open letter on Friday.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/harvard-ban-members-single-sex-clubs-leadership-roles-200609855.html?nhp=1
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)God, talk about going overboard. Sheez.
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)Are exclusionary, elitist relics.
The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)Mixed is allowed under these rules.
I went to UCLA, and generally avoided the "greek" houses like the plague, as common as they were. The sororities were much, much cleaner places. I've seen cleaner jails than the UCLA fraternities.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)I wasn't thrilled about her joining, but it actually has been a positive experience for her and got her more involved.
I was wrong about my initial judgment, and it's a shame that now some schools want to punish students for joining.
Live and let live.
The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)I wouldn't want to join a club that had someone like me as a member.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)and agree!
But I recognize other people think differently than I do, even my own daughters.
Akicita
(1,196 posts)I would wager that most people would love to join a club that had someone like you.
The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)Seriously though, the club line is stolen directly from Groucho Marx. As much as I avoid communism and socialism, I'm quite the Marxist.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. --Groucho Marx.
Akicita
(1,196 posts)whistler162
(11,155 posts)Groucho that is.
The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)but a Grouchista
Bibliovore
(185 posts)I haven't read anything about whatever Harvard's doing with Greek houses or other one-gender-only organizations prior to this post, but what I immediately thought when I read this headline was that it's an interesting way of avoiding "old-boys'-club politics," in either gender direction.
(You probably already know this, but for the benefit of anyone reading who doesn't: Historically, it wasn't uncommon for mostly-male leadership bodies' male members to network, socialize, and/or have policy discussions in men-only clubs. In some cases their aim was to exclude the female members; in some they were just talking shop when they bumped into each other in a place they frequented, but either way, it unfairly cut the women in the leadership body out of a lot of the decision-making and politicking.)
I have no idea whether that has tended to happen in colleges with single-gender groups. It does seem that Harvard's new policy would make such things harder, though, while still allowing mixed-gender Greek houses. Would a mixed house have given your daughter a similarly positive experience?
lastlib
(23,388 posts)ot the top ## party colleges in the country. At the end of the article was this disclaimer:
Might explain why the frat-houses were that way....
The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)impression that Cal State Chico was the big leagues for partiers. Disproven by my friends and relatives who went there, who are non-partiers.
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)Akicita
(1,196 posts)People Studies Program. I'm excited for the progress. When will they de-genderize the soccer and basketball teams? Having two teams for each sport is becoming redundant and causes problems for transitioning persons.