As long as we can remember, single gender clubs have been around. Greek life, sports teams, and other social clubs have existed and thrived for hundreds of years, stimulating positive impacts on individuals and communities. Never did it cross our minds, however, that having single gendered clubs was a negative and frowned upon activity… until now.
Last week, Harvard University officially put in place new sanctions penalizing any single-gendered club that was on or off campus. And until now, Harvard did not regulate the social life of undergraduate students. In 2016, these sanctions were put up for debate and have now been finalized. According to thecrimson.com an article written explaining these sanctions states, “… bars members of single-gendered final clubs, sororities, and fraternities from holding leadership positions in recognized student organizations, becoming varsity captains, or receiving College endorsement for prestigious fellowships.” These sanctions penalize students for simply being involved in single gendered groups, because they are seen as “discriminatory” to those individuals who do not fall on the binary. But should these people who do not identify as male or female does, be the reason a sorority or fraternity is penalized so harshly?
Not surprisingly, these sanctions have become highly controversial in the media, on college campuses all over the country, as well as within the faculty of Harvard. The Harvard Corporation officially signed these sanctions, which means that it is basically set in stone. This corporation is the highest you can get when it comes to the politics within the University, along with the President (Drew G. Faust) is lawyers, academics, and business people. However, even though these highly influential and powerful position holders agree fully with these new rules, other faculty members do not. The dean of the college, Harry R. Lewis along with 12 other colleagues stated, “Harvard College shall not discriminate against students on the basis of the organizations that they join.” They stand on the grounds that students, and people in general, should not be persecuted, penalized, or discriminated based off of the groups they join or the interest that they have.
Already we have begun to see some of their organizations suffer. Seven groups since the sanction passed have now become gender neutral. Two of which had to leave their national chapters because of this, Alpha Epsilon Pi as well as Kappa Sigma because the national chapter is not gender neutral.
In protest of this extremely bias and discriminatory sanction, sororities at Harvard University have been protesting with their main slogan as “Hear Her Harvard” as a stand that they should not be penalized for their extracurricular activities. National groups have gotten involved as well. The national Delta Gamma asked member to show their support for Harvard by wearing their letters proudly and spreading the hash tag #HearHerHarvard with any inspirational, moving, or just heartwarming experiences they have had while being in Delta Gamma. Other sororities such as Alpha Phi International and Kappa Alpha Theta International posted the hash tag and similar posts as well.
,In spite of all of this negativity and hostility it is amazing to see all of these Greek chapters come together in support of Harvard’s students showing their love and putting this movement out their getting their voices heard. Hopefully with all of the protesting Harvard will reconsider their extremely discriminatory sanctions.
Photo source:Â https://tenor.com/view/greek-sorority-dg-bidday-delta-gamma-gif-5069230
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