Ummmm... the NPCs at Harvard were only colonized a short time ago. KAT was colonized in 1992, DG in 1994, and KKG in 2003.

Many of the clubs at Harvard have a much more storied history, and I would imagine some very powerful alumnae. It is, after all, Harvard.

It's Harvard. Students aren't going to be as in need of networking opportunities as students at other schools.

Unfortunately, some of them, including the final clubs, are not open to women. I'm sure Isis women would argue that they are building what will become an equivalent to these male institutions one day. The newspaper is asking legitimate questions, I think, about whether this is a good model to follow (a system for the future distribution of opportunities according to association with expensive, socially exclusive drinking clubs).

For the most part, though, 33girl and kddani have it exactly right. Co-ed groups like the Lampoon, the Crimson, the Hasty Pudding Club, and the undergraduate Houses provide such fantastic networking that the students just don't have to worry about it. Other than a few Southerners with family history, most of the women who join NPCs at Harvard aren't thinking about networking or really about the national organization at all. It's about social life during college, plain and simple.