Harvard University has denounced traditionally single-sex student organizations and has imposed harsh sanctions on those who still wish to participate in them, according to The Harvard Crimson.
The school is concerned with the clubs’ membership selection processes and announced on Friday that it will bar all class of 2021 students and any current student who wishes to join single-sex final clubs (exclusive social organizations that are similar to fraternities and sororities) and Greek organizations from certain on-campus privileges.
Members of these groups will be unable to hold campus leadership positions or receive recommendations for post-graduate scholarships unless the organizations become co-ed. Members of these clubs make up 30 percent of the student population, according to The New York Times.
In fall 2015, two historically male clubs at the the school, the Spee Club and the Fox Club, both agreed to open admission to women.
“Although the fraternities, sororities and final clubs are not formally recognized by the College, they play an unmistakable and growing role in student life, in many cases enacting forms of privilege and exclusion at odds with our deepest values,” University President, Drew G. Faust, said in an email to the Harvard community on Friday.
“The College cannot ignore these organizations if it is to advance our shared commitment to broadening opportunity and making Harvard a campus for all of its students.”
The announcement left room for greater on-campus sanctions to be imposed, according to The Harvard Crimson. It is possible that the prestigious university may follow suit to what happened at Amherst College back in 2014 when students were banned fro being a member of a single-sex social organization and a student at the school.
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