A traditionally all-male club at Harvard University has snubbed the gender-neutral urgings of the administration and booted nine “provisional” female members from its membership, according to correspondence published Tuesday.
Fox Club admitted the nine female members on a provisional basis in October 2015, amid pressure by Harvard administrators for clubs to adopt gender-neutral membership, reported The Harvard Crimson. However, the decision spurred in-fighting between undergraduate and graduate members of the club, and no female members were accepted in the subsequent fall semester.
Daniel T. Skarzynski, former Fox Club undergraduate president, wrote that Hugh M. Nesbit, the club’s graduate board president, had told him that both male and female provisional members were no longer part of the club, in email correspondence obtained by The Harvard Crimson.
“For the concerned parties, [Nesbit] also said that if you’d like to be re-considered for membership, you should send an email to that effect … and that the grad board will vote individually,” wrote Skarzynski. “However, he said this invite for reapplication does not apply to female members until such a time as the club votes successfully to add women to its membership.”
“Some folks certainly know how to get on the wrong side of history voluntarily,” said Douglas W. Sears, the president of the graduate board during the female students’ admission to the club.
Fox Club’s decision comes two months prior to the Class of 2021 starting classes at Harvard. This class will be the first whose students, if they belong to single-gender clubs, Harvard will prohibit from attaining leadership positions in student groups and receiving Rhodes and Marshall fellowships. (RELATED: Harvard Will Punish Students Who Join Single-Sex Clubs)
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Harvard University and Skarzynski for comment, but received none in time for publication.
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