Fly Club to Hold Vote On First Co-Ed Punch

The undergraduate members of the fly Club will decide in the next few weeks whether to uphold their vote last year and become the first of Harvard's nine final clubs to admit women into their fall punch.

"The decision is up to the under graduate membership and we will be making the decision in time for the punch this fall," Fly President Robert M. Carlock '95 said in an interview last week.

The Fly's fall punch starts October 7. The date for the vote has not yet been set, Carlock said.

Last September, the undergraduate members of the fly voted 28-0 with one abstention to overturn the club's 157-year-old all-male policy.

The Fly's graduate board decided unanimously last October to allow a co-ed punch--but not until the fall of 1994.

Some Fly members charged last October that their graduate council was stonewalling undergraduates by delaying action for a year.

But Carlock said last week that the Fly's graduate council will stand behind whatever vote is reached by the undergraduate members this fall.

About 20 of the club's 50 members graduated last, year, prompting some undergraduates to fear that new members would alter the previous vote.

Approximately 20 new members have been admitted since last spring, Carlock said.

Carlock said the question of whether to admit women has been a "pervasive" issue for the club over the past year."

"We have spent a year considering how the graduates feel, how we all feel a year later," Carlock said. "We have been considering what we would have to change--with the building, our initiation process, the punch itself."

Eric E. Vogt '70, graduate president of the Fly Club, said the graduates formed a committee after their vote last fall to review the implications of female membership.

"It was the thought that if we were going to bring in women as members that we should do it with some grace," he said. "An initiation has some amount of ritual and traditional garb, like club ties, and if you bring women in as members you should think through how you will make the rituals appropriate."

Carlock noted that, for instance, the club's bathrooms would have to be changed to accommodate female members.

"We would like as little to change as possible with women members," he said. "It will still be the same club."

But Carlock said the Fly will make the changes necessary to admit women as equals.

"They are not going to be second-class members," he said. "They will not be brought in and asked to use the bathroom a guest would use."

If the club votes not to admit women, Carlock said they will continue to discuss the issue.

And if members choose to turn co-ed, Carlock said it is "inconceivable" that women will not be punched. He said there will be no quota for how many women will be admitted.

"We are not going to vote tokens," he said. "You just elect the people who you want.

Approximately 20 new members have been admitted since last spring, Carlock said.

Carlock said the question of whether to admit women has been a "pervasive" issue for the club over the past year."

"We have spent a year considering how the graduates feel, how we all feel a year later," Carlock said. "We have been considering what we would have to change--with the building, our initiation process, the punch itself."

Eric E. Vogt '70, graduate president of the Fly Club, said the graduates formed a committee after their vote last fall to review the implications of female membership.

"It was the thought that if we were going to bring in women as members that we should do it with some grace," he said. "An initiation has some amount of ritual and traditional garb, like club ties, and if you bring women in as members you should think through how you will make the rituals appropriate."

Carlock noted that, for instance, the club's bathrooms would have to be changed to accommodate female members.

"We would like as little to change as possible with women members," he said. "It will still be the same club."

But Carlock said the Fly will make the changes necessary to admit women as equals.

"They are not going to be second-class members," he said. "They will not be brought in and asked to use the bathroom a guest would use."

If the club votes not to admit women, Carlock said they will continue to discuss the issue.

And if members choose to turn co-ed, Carlock said it is "inconceivable" that women will not be punched. He said there will be no quota for how many women will be admitted.

"We are not going to vote tokens," he said. "You just elect the people who you want.