Committee co-chair promises no ‘McCarthy-esque’ informants
Harvard didn’t bother to solicit student opinion before deciding to discriminate against students who are members of single-sex clubs, such as final clubs and fraternities and sororities.
And when it finally did, it declared the entire “town hall” off the record.
The Harvard Crimson reports that the school held its first ironically named “open forum” last week about the policy, which blocks “members of unrecognized single-gender social organizations from student leadership positions, varsity captaincies, and College endorsement for fellowships.”
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Most of the comments from students who attended were critical, the Crimson says, though under Harvard’s rule for the “open forum,” the reporter had to ask everyone afterward for permission to use their quotes – almost certainly downplaying the unpopularity of the rules:
While a number of students and Harvard affiliates have voiced their support for the policy, few seemed to have attended the town hall, where no student offered an unreservedly positive opinion of the administration’s sanctions.
The new rules were given cover by a sexual-assault task force report that accused final clubs of being havens for assault by relying on misleading statistics.
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Neither Prof. Kay Shelemay, co-chair of the committee implementing the policy, nor Associate Dean of Student Life David Friedrich seemed enthused about defending the rules, which were rammed through by Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana (pictured below):
After one attendee asked whether his all-male final club affiliation should disqualify him from eligibility for the Rhodes—one of the key tenents of the policy—Shelemay said, “I hesitate to speak for Dean Khurana, and I did not design the policy.” …
“[My question is] why this town hall that has generated such meaningful questions and conversations did not take place before the policy was announced to us in May?” Yasmin Z. Sachee ’18 asked.
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After addressing another of Sachee’s questions, Shelemay asked if Friedrich “want[ed] to speak to why it wasn’t held earlier.”
Following laughs from the audience and seconds of silence from Friedrich, Shelemay continued the discussion.
“Oh dear, never mind. Clearly no one thought of doing it last spring but it’s nice that we’re doing it now,” Shelemay said.
Later Friedrich also declined to say why it wasn’t held before the policy was set, and said the town-hall decision “wasn’t my call.”
MORE: Harvard faculty file resolution against single-sex sanctions
Friedrich and Shelemay weren’t sure whether a pending faculty resolution against the policy could nullify it.
Asked whether students would be required to “inform on their peers” who are members of sanctioned organizations, Shelemay responded: “I don’t think any of us want a McCarthy-esque sort of committee outcome or process.”
Harvard has already given two exemptions to the rules: for Crimson staff who are members of single-sex clubs, and for members of the all-female Seneca club, personally promised by Friedrich that it could remain de facto female-only as long as it changes its bylaws to become “gender neutral.”
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