Socially Stratified

Mass. Ave. marks the dividing line between “old Harvard” and “new Harvard”. On one side sits the Yard, the President’s office, the admissions office—all the trappings of a diverse twenty-first century university. On the other side stand the vestiges of “old Harvard”—the Porcellian, A. D., Fly, Owl, Delphic, Fox, Phoenix S. K., and Spee Clubs—the eight remaining all-gentleman’s final clubs of a bygone age.

December 1984 marked year when the presidents of the then-nine final clubs decided to disassociate from the University rather than admit women. But though the official bridge across the Mass. Ave. divide has been burned, relations between the University and the clubs remain complicated.

THE FINAL SPLIT

Before 1984, Harvard officially provided the clubs with access to alumni lists for fundraising, Centrex phone service, and steam heating. But it was Harvard’s policy on discrimination that finally forced them to reevaluate their recognition of the nine exclusively male clubs.

Recognizing clubs that excluded women was not a viable option for a university in the process of fully merging with its neighboring women’s college, Radcliffe. According to former Dean of the College John B. Fox Jr. ’59, severing ties with the clubs was an important part of fully integrating Radcliffe and Harvard, a process that was essentially complete by 1977—though the President of Radcliffe still signed women’s diplomas until 1999.

“The issue of having an antiquated and exclusive club that would not accept women was certainly a controversial issue,” said Victor G. Freeman ’88 a former member of the Undergraduate Council. One that he said “was not going to sit well” in light of the merger.

A catalyzing force in the divorce process was Pi Eta, a now defunct speaking club that Fox said often associated itself with final clubs. This “vestige of an early club system” published a newsletter that referred to women invited to a club party as a “bevy of slobbering bovines fresh for the slaughter.” Though Pi Eta was not itself a final club, the outrage over the publication sparked discussions about whether the final clubs could continue with their ostensibly exclusionary policies.

Students held a demonstration in response to the incident and a Crimson photographer was arrested for allegedly stepping onto Pi Eta’s property to take a photo of the event. Fox and Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III even asked the club to close, but Pi Eta refused.

Pi Eta’s publication—which then-club President Timothy J. Keating ’85 called a “poor attempt at humor” in a public letter of apology addressed to Fox—though not a product of a final club, was seen as representative of the type of thinking promoted by the final club system in general.

“We received many, many complaints from women about how they were treated when they were invited to go to final clubs and that made it all the more important that we compel the clubs to either get on board [by admitting women members] or get off the ship,” said Fox.

The club presidents chose to jump ship. But the separation did not occur overnight.

SOFT EFFECTS

At first the clubs stalled.But on May 9, 1984 the Committee on College Life set an October 1 deadline for the clubs to decide whether they would admit women or separate. After several extensions of the deadline, on December 8, club presidents met with a subcommittee and indicated they were ready to sever ties, according to a Crimson article from that year.

On December 10, the CCL voted unanimously to affirm the following statement: “The committee notes that the final clubs, after a review of the issues, have decided to revert to their independent status. The committee recommends that the College accept this decision and work to achieve this end as soon as possible.”

The clubs, “content to go their own way” according to Fox, were not necessarily rattled by the split.

“We all expected the severance of ties to have a bigger impact than it did at the PSK,” said Andrew F. Saxe ’84, Phoenix S. K. graduate board member. “We lost our Centrex phone number and had to get a regular number, which, if I recall correctly, actually cost less a year than the University phone system we used.”

Saxe said that at the time the clubs were not as central to social life at the College as the Houses, so their status in regard to the University was not a big issue.

“What truly affected the clubs was the change in the drinking age from 18, then 19, to 21. The campus society craved places where students could socialize and drink and through sheer peer pressure, forced the clubs to open their doors and serve as venues for the broader campus community,” Saxe said.

IT’S COMPLICATED

Yet while formal communication may have been severed in 1984, tenuous links remained. In 1986 The Crimson reported that the A. D. and possibly other clubs had rented the Holyoke Center penthouse through Harvard Real Estate Services.

Individual members are also subject to the College’s policies.

“[Club members] were still subject to the College’s rules on good behavior,” Fox said about his time as dean. “Individual students were still obliged to follow the College’s rules.”

In 1988 one student, Lisa J. Schkolnick ’88, with the help of Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz, filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination charging the Fly with sexual discrimination.

“I was just personally outraged as a Harvard faculty member that any institution associated with Harvard would have any invidious policies,” said Dershowitz.

But the action was rejected by MCAD, which said that as private entities final clubs were not within their jurisdiction.

For the most part the clubs’ policies have gone unchanged. Today, final clubs remain gender specific, but some female final clubs now exist—though most lack the deep alumni ties and valuable property that male clubs possess. Female clubs are also largely dependent on male clubs for space.

Dershowitz said that he sees the gender discrimination issue as one the University must confront—though with the official lines of communication severed that may be difficult, he admitted.

“As recently as a month ago I was invited to speak at the Fly and I never turn down an invitation to speak, but I turned this one down,” Dershowitz said. “I won’t step foot in a place that discriminates.”

Dershowitz has urged Harvard to adopt a policy to ban any faculty from speaking at places that discriminate while representing the school in any official capacity.

“It’s still a problem,” Dershowitz said. “There is just no room at Harvard for discrimination, we can’t give it any breathing space or wiggle room.”

—Staff writer Jillian K. Kushner can be reached at kushner@fas.harvard.edu