WAC Mail Drive Targets Alumni

Leaders of Women Appealing for Change (WAC) will target alumni this week in a massive mail drive designed to pressure the campus's eight all-male final clubs to admit women.

Over the next few days, WAC leaders said they will send 400 letters to graduates of the College--including many former final club members--as well as Harvard-Radcliffe clubs around the country.

"This is the first time we've written formally to the Harvard-Radcliffe clubs," said WAC chair Frances B. Walton '94. "We really want to get the issues talked about."

WAC organizers take credit for once again raising the issue of the final clubs' policy of restricting admission to males.

Last fall, the Fly Club voted to admit women at an undetermined time in the future.

WAC is also planning a meeting with the president of the Boston Harvard-Radcliffe club, Walton said.

WAC co-chair Megan E. Colligan '95 said the organization is reaching out to alumni because graduates provide much of the backing for final clubs.

"Harvard graduates to a large extent are the major proponents of final clubs," she said.

By addressing graduates directly, Colligan said WAC hopes the pressure will mount on final clubs to admit women.

"We realize that there are a large number of women graduates who are interested in undergraduate concerns, and who understand and remember what it feels like to be unable to participate in [final clubs]," Colligan said.

"We want to alert these alumni as to what we are doing, and hopefully with their feedback and involvement we can enhance our movement," she said.

Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 said yesterday that WAC's effort to enlist the support of alumni members could be effective.

"Certainly, that may be another way to convince [the final clubs] to change their policies," Jewett said. "After all, final clubs have alumni boards who support them. WAC could very well persuade them to change their guidelines."

WAC co-chair Sarah E. Winters '95 said the new campaign to increase awareness among alumni demonstrates the activity and growth of the organization.

"This decision really demonstrates WAC's development," Winters said.