Clubs Are Part of the Solution

For too long, final clubs and their members have been unfairly portrayed as the enemy, as semi-evil organizations with ugly intentions; this characterization is simply wrong. Final club members, like all students, long for a satisfying social life. I believe I speak for members of all eight clubs in saying that we too bemoan the College’s distressing lack of options for the socially active student, and would go to great lengths to help improve the social situation. Furthermore, we lament that this lack of options has drastically changed the role and position of final clubs on campus. Students must understand that final clubs share a common goal of improving social life at Harvard for all those concerned

Final clubs were never intended as centers for campus social life. Their original and historical role was as a supplement to the Harvard experience; they originated as places where members could escape the often-stressful life of a Harvard student and create lasting bonds with a small groups of close friends. What I consider to be the tragedy of recent final club history is that the administration’s often restrictive attitudes and policies regarding student life, coupled with the loss of several socially-oriented Harvard Square institutions (e.g. the Grille, the Bow), have increased the pressure on final clubs to become active centers of social life, despite being completely unaffiliated with the university. This development is not, as is generally assumed, embraced by the clubs or their members .

As a club president said in The Crimson April 22, “It’s not fun for me when a lot of random people who don’t know anyone in the club show up at my door.”

But what is most disappointing about this discussion is the nature of the anti-club material. At a university which prides itself on academic excellence and thoroughness, the often-unsubstantiated cliches about final clubs are disheartening. The Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS) and Perspective’s recent use of the now-defunct Pi Eta fraternity in their information on final clubs is wholly irresponsible; to hold final clubs in any way responsible for the shortcomings of an organization which was not a final club is absurd. It merely helps to perpetuate an unfair depiction of the existing clubs and to ensure that no productive discussion will ever occur on the topic. Furthermore, it is unwise and unfair to assume that final clubs somehow create a culture that would not exist in their absence. It does not seem logical to assume that the venue is to blame for the behavior of the individuals inside. The issues that plagued Pi Eta and some current final clubs are in some measure an omnipresent aspect of college life in general; they exist not only within the doors of the clubs, but at universities around the country. While the problems which organizations such as RUS frequently cite are clearly neither trivial nor pardonable, it is absurd to blame final clubs for having created the culture which breeds such problems, or to assume that eliminating final clubs would eliminate them.

Although final clubs are understandably easy targets and convenient scapegoats, their alleged evils are not a disease, as many would like us to believe, but rather symptoms of Harvard’s gravely ill social scene. Instead of targeting final clubs as the enemy, students should reach out to clubs. Instead of targeting final clubs as the enemy, I suggest that students work together with club members in a positive manner. Members are, after all, Harvard students like everyone else. With so many intelligent people so passionate about an issue, there is indeed great potential for progress on the topic of the Harvard social life. But as long as the members of RUS, Perspective, and many Harvard students insist on creating negative energy and circulating harsh anti-club sentiment, they will get little help from the club members, who could otherwise be among the most active students in a push to open up more social options. Let’s put aside our differences, put down our pens, and see what we can accomplish.

Evan Powers ’03 is vice president of the Owl Club.