Final Clubs Poison Social Scene

Some Harvard traditions are well worth preserving while others deserve to be expunged. We have little trouble placing final clubs in the latter camp, and this, the 25th anniversary of Harvard's last all-male graduation, seems an especially appropriate time to call for their demise. While the all-male clubs persist with no end in sight, there has been more widespread recognition this year than in the past by the administration and elements within the student body that the clubs are downright destructive.

On the administrative side, in February, Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III's released a letter condemning the clubs. Epps explains that "a disturbing increase in the reports of inappropriate behavior occurring at various final clubs" has spurred him to draw attention to "some of the more serious allegations...as a caution to students who may be considering joining or visiting a club." Epps goes on to detail a number of events "reported to us as having taken place" at final clubs during 1996, including sexual harassment, drug dealing and fighting.

It is encouraging to see the College taking a hard line against the final clubs, an archaic cluster of organizations whose divisive impact poisons Harvard's social atmosphere. One of the most notable charges leveled in Epps' letter--that the College has been approached by women alleging sexual harassment--is as serious as it is unsurprising. The discriminatory ethos of the clubs, along with their exclusivity, conspire to create an environment which imbalances the relationship between male "hosts" and female "visitors."

The structure of many of the clubs is such that members are able to exert considerable control over female guests: women are dependent upon male members for admittance (often through side doors), and once women are inside, their movement is regulated--they are confined to the rooms members deem them fit to enter. It is no wonder that such a controlling environment gives club members confidence to make the kinds of overtures that would be seen elsewhere as inappropriate; Epps is right to advise women that the best way to avoid uncomfortable sexually-charged situations at club events is simply not to attend them.

Sadly, the reaction of Interclub Council Executive Director, Douglas W. Sears '69 to Epps' letter only underscores the failure of club members and their alumni to face the serious problems that make final clubs a scar on the Harvard community. Sears called the clubs the "last socially acceptable group to discriminate against," dismissing Epps' report as, "whiny, patently self-serving, smug and patronizing," and noting that the formation of the clubs reflects "Harvard's [failure]...to provide places for undergraduates to go where people can have as much fun." Content to brush off revelations of sexual harassment and drug dealing by blaming Harvard's social life, Sears has even more gall than we would have expected.

On the undergraduate front, there have also been promising signs that the reputations of the clubs are souring. The Radcliffe Women's Action Coalition (RADWAC), a task force of the Radcliffe Union of Students, conducted a postering campaign against the clubs over Junior Parents Weekend in March. "Support Your Local Bastion of Classist Patriarchal Elitism--Go to a Final Club Party," read one apt sign.

We commend this type of awareness-raising, and welcome similar steps to energize the campus dialogue on this issue. With the constant overturn of students and the secrecy of the clubs, only through such efforts will questionable club activities garner the publicity necessary to deter men from joining and women from attending parties sponsored by them.

We can only hope that the efforts of RADWAC, together with Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III's letters to the community about questionable activities performed on club premises, will help to cast the clubs in the proper light. We encourage all members of final clubs to deactivate. If the final clubs will not perish of their own free will, perhaps a nudge by Harvard students and administrators will do the trick.