Student Reps Demand Break From Final Clubs

Undergraduate Council members last night urged student representatives to the Committee on College Life (CCI) to vote to sever the University's ties to the nine all-male final clubs when the committee convenes this afternoon to resolve the issue.

Unless the clubs present new and compelling reasons why they should be exempt from the University's anti-discrimination policy, the committee will likely vote to terminate the connections, student members of the CCI said after last night's council meeting.

The CCI gave the clubs one month to formulate a statement as to why they should retain their official status after they announced last month that they would not admit women.

The club presidents will present their statement to the committee's student members this morning preliminary to the full committee's afternoon meeting.

The final clubs financial ties to the University include access to steam heat, centers phones, and student and alumni phone lists.

"The University should not financially support discriminatory student organizations." Katherine M Howell '86 told the council in what was the its first discussion of the issue this year.

"I hope they will change their mind and decide to admit women. But if they don't, and [if] they don't have valid reasons why they should be exempt from University policy, the committee will vote to sever ties," CCI member Gina R. Levy '87 said after the meeting.

One of the arguments the club presidents are expected to raise is their similarity to other single sex organizations, such as all female singing groups and athletic clubs. Levy said.

But she questioned the validity of that argument. "The reason why other groups are being exempt is intuitively obvious, while the reason that a social group should be exempt is not as obvious," Levy added.

In other business last night, the council approved a Residential Committee report on the freshman housing lottery, weighing the current system of "first choice maximization" against a proposed random lottery.

Jessica E. Levin, chairman of the Residential Committee, will submit the report to Dean of the College John B. For Jr. '99 at a Committee on Housing meeting this afternoon.

Is addition, the council allocated $2062 of its social budget for a January 5 "Behaves party" in the Freshman Union.

The Council also acted on two student grant requests. The Council approved $1-45 for the Harvard-Radcliffe Mozart Society Orchestra and loaned $400 to the Cabot House grill