Allston Could Fix Social Imbalance, Gomes Says

lummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes told a packed audience in Fong Auditorium Friday night that Allston could provide an opportunity to fix the social imbalance in College life caused by final clubs.

Gomes suggested that students explore other social alternatives to unify the social scene, pointing to a student center in Allston or a reinvestment in House life as viable options.

The two-hour event sponsored by the Harvard Race, Culture, and Diversity Initiative attracted a number of final club members, as well as Students Against Super Sexist Institutions-We Oppose Oppressive Final Clubs (SASSI-WOOFCLUBS) members and other interested students.

The formation of final clubs was a reaction to the increased division within the College, said Gomes, who teaches Religion 1513, “History of Harvard and Its Presidents.” But as the College began to disintegrate along class lines with the formation of clubs, two major efforts were launched to reunify the College: the Union, where the Barker Center now sits, and the House system.

“[The Union] was to be everyone’s club, the social center of Harvard College, one of the very few places where there was genuine intermingling,” Gomes said. “[It] was intended to provide an alternative so that everyone had a place that was equal.”

But the efforts never took off.

Following the integration of women at Harvard in 1977, the issue of the gender exclusivity of the final clubs arose. “Clubs exist and their death, long predicted, has not come and shows no sign of coming in a reasonable time frame,” Gomes said.

Members of the Harvard Race, Culture and Diversity Initiative asked to keep the hour-long discussion that followed the speech off the record to allow students to converse more freely.

But one Phoenix member, who agreed to have his quotes used, said that gender inequalities are inherent in final clubs.

He said that the Phoenix provided the first male role models he ever had. The Phoenix member also said that students opposed to final clubs should seek alternative social space.

Special Assistant to the Dean for Social Programming Zachary A Corker ’04 said that the larger problem seemed to be with the social scene, not the final clubs. “It sounded like there was a general voice that seemed to say, ‘let’s keep thinking about these final clubs and their role in the social landscape of the college, but let’s also look at these bigger issues.’”

The Phoenix member agreed that the issue went beyond final clubs. “The deepest and most realistic problem to deal with is bringing some accountability to the administration for the mental health and social life of students,” he said.

But Undergraduate Council President Matthew W. Mahan ’05 said that the discussion did not facilitate “meaningful dialogue” because it wasn’t sure whether to focus on the final clubs or on improving the larger social scene at Harvard.

“Despite the best efforts of the RCDI, the ensuing values-related discussion barely scratched the surface of the real issue,” he said. “I think that the worst thing that can happen now is if we pat ourselves on the back for starting this important discussion and then fail to follow up with a serious, probing dialogue about where to go from here.”

SASSI-WOOFCLUBS co-chair Maureen D. Connolly ’06 agreed, pointing to the gender inequality of the clubs as an unaddressed issue.

“I think we failed to really examine the big picture,” Connolly wrote in an e-mail. “An even bigger problem is the widespread acceptance of a club network that continues to endorse gender inequity...It is a matter of trying to deconstruct an antiquated system of social inequity.”

—Staff writer Margaret W. Ho can be reached at mwho@fas.harvard.edu.