Social clubs exist at Harvard College that are unrecognized by Harvard itself. The oldest, dating to 1791, are the traditionally all-male, final clubs. Fraternities were prominent in the late 1800s as well until their initial expulsions and then eventual resurrection off Harvard's campus in the 1990s. Beginning in 1991, all-female final clubs as well as sororities have appeared. Since 1984, none of these all-male or all-female social organizations have been recognized by the school.
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While a small number of these organizations have begun to admit both sexes, most do not—the reason, in general, that Harvard College refuses to recognize them. In 2016, Harvard undertook to further marginalize organizations that, in its stated view, are "exclusionary and disempowering", by barring members of unrecognized single-sex organizations from campus leadership positions and from receiving certain types of Harvard recommendation letters.
Origins
The historical basis for the name "final clubs" dates to the late 19th century, a time when Harvard had a variety of clubs for students of each class year. During that period, Harvard College freshmen could join a freshman club, then a "waiting club," and eventually, as they neared completion of their studies, a "final club." Hence, students of different years joined different clubs, and the "final clubs" were so named because they were the last social club a person could join before graduation. Harvard's final clubs for women date to 1991 with the founding of the Bee Club.
Many of the clubs were founded in the 19th century, after Harvard banned traditional fraternities in the 1850s. Of the final clubs still in existence (see below), only the Fox was initially founded as a final club. The Phoenix SK is the amalgam of three separate clubs: the Phoenix, the Sphinx, and the Kalumet. The Iroquois Club built the edifice now owned by the Office for the Arts at Harvard, at 74 Mount Auburn Street; their dance studio is the former Iroquois dining hall. The original Pi Eta Club built the structure now occupied by Upstairs On The Square, and Grendel's Den.
The clubs
There are also other social organizations not recognized by Harvard University, including the Oak Club, that do not own property but regularly hold social events.
History
The Harvard men's final clubs trace their roots to the late 18th century, while the five all-female social clubs were founded more recently. Another women's organization, the Seneca, distinguishes itself as a "501(c)(3) nonprofit women's organization that is often misidentified as a final club." Several other clubs are also 501(c)(3) organizations and engage in some community service. The Bee was founded in 1991, The Seneca in 1999, Isis in 2000, Pleiades in 2002, Sabliere in 2002, and La Vie in 2008. (The co-ed Signet Society, The Harvard Crimson, Harvard Advocate and Harvard Lampoon also have selective membership, but their charters define them as something other than social organizations, based on their literary or artistic characteristics.)
Eight of the male clubs own real estate in Harvard Square, with the clubhouses usually including dining areas, libraries, and game rooms. Most are staffed with chefs, stewards, and other paid personnel, and serve lunch and dinner meals at regular schedules. The Delphic Club boasts a regulation-size squash court.
The Bee Club rents space from the Fly Club at 45 Dunster Street in a building that was previously the D.U. Club (the "Duck") before the D.U. Club's graduate membership merged with the Fly in 1996. In a controversial move, the Fly did not allow former D.U. undergraduate members to integrate, and subsequently the undergraduate D.U. membership formed The Oak Club. La Vie Club rents a colonial style house on Garden Street. The Isis rents a portion of The Owl's premises. Recently, the Sabliere Society obtained property in the Square. Recently, the Pleiades Society obtained an apartment on Waterhouse Street.
In 1984, as required by Title IX legislation, the clubs opted to become fully independent, and since then have maintained themselves beyond university regulation. The clubs own real estate property in Cambridge, collectively assessed at over $17 million as of 2006.
Controversy
Harvard severed ties with final clubs in 1985 because of their refusal to admit women.
During the 2006 Senate hearings on the nomination of Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court, Senator Edward Kennedy was among those highlighting Alito's membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton, which had opposed admission of women into Princeton; when Kennedy's membership in the Owl Club was pointed out, Kennedy resigned from the club. That same year, Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick's membership in the Fly Club was criticized as contradictory to his image as a champion of civil rights; Patrick responded that he had left the club in the early 1980s for that reason.[Subscription required]
In the fall of 2015, Harvard President Drew Faust criticized the clubs for—as stated by C. Ramsey Fahs of The Harvard Crimson—their "alleged gender exclusivity and the potential for alcohol abuse and sexual assault on the off-campus properties." The Spee Club began admitting women in later 2015, and the Fox Club followed suit but was soon temporarily shut down as graduate board members sought to re-evaluate what it meant to be a "member of the Fox".
As part of an effort to marginalize organizations that "contribute to a social life and a student culture that for many on our campus is disempowering and exclusionary", a new policy provides that students entering in the fall of 2017 or later who join unrecognized single-sex organizations (such as single-sex final clubs, fraternities, and sororities) will be barred from campus leadership positions such as team captaincies, and from receiving recommendation letters from Harvard requisite for scholarships and fellowships. At least one club has protested that the new rule infringes students' right of free association, and enforcement may be stymied by the difficulty of establishing who the members of each club are. In 2016, the President and Vice President of the Undergraduate Council, Shaiba Rather and Daniel Banks spoke before the elected Faculty Council and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University to support the effort to curb gender-discrimination amongst student organizations. Their statement was the first official opinion of any elected members of the student body on the matter. However, in November 2016, a majority of undergraduate student voters on a referendum question were in favor of repealing the sanctions (59.8%), while 30.3% were against repealing the sanctions and 9.8% abstained from voting. The vote had no immediate effect on the policy.
In response to the policy, the all-female Sablière and Seneca societies instituted gender-neutral recruitment policies in 2016. The all-male Oak Club followed suit in 2017 after reaching a "club-wide consensus".