Kappa Alpha Theta at Harvard Closing
 

I am absolutely sick at the announcement that the Kappa Alpha Theta chapter at Harvard University is closing due to pressure from the university.

https://www.kappaalphatheta.org/blog...ot-have-chosen

NOOOOOO!!!
That only leaves ΑΦ and ΔΓ, am I right?
This is so wrong. :(

I think someone posted in another thread that DG is closing...so only Alpha Phi.

Kappa's members (or many of them) - now that their chapter has closed - have re-organized themselves as a social club open to all genders. They've named it Fleur de Lis, one of their symbols.

Here’s the whole thing - how are they going to MAKE men join these clubs even if they aren’t single gender? They will end up being a de facto sorority, without national oversight.

Forest. Trees. GAH!!!

Harvard did not treat Theta (and other sororities) very well. I would guess that Theta may be glad they no longer have to deal the eccentricities of that school and the people who work there. I do respect Theta's integrity in not letting Harvard push them around or make them become something that they have no desire to become.

Regarding reorganizing the former Harvard sororities into social clubs open to all genders -- there is a well-worn model for this. It may not be very popular to post this, but I recall back in the last century, some fraternity chapters were de facto co-ed organizations. Almost all fraternities had little sister organizations. Some had little sister groups with membership numbers almost equaling the male active membership.

Don't get me wrong, there were and are very good reasons for fraternities eliminating the little sister auxiliary groups. My point is that, from a current student's perspective, multi-gender fraternal collegiate groups have been done before - long ago - and in many instances quite successfully.

DElta Gamma has left as well.

This just makes me angry. I was really rooting for the remaining chapters and was proud of how they stood up to Harvard, but I understand why they chose not to continue.

I guess now that the evil single-gender Greek orgs are leaving, that will make Harvard a social utopia? 🙄🙄🙄

Just dumb.

So disappointing! I was so proud of DG, Alpha Phi and Theta for taking a stand. I guess the collegians simply felt the battle was not worth it. The votes to back down came from the collegians, not the HQs.

This whole thing makes me so sick. Misogyny through and through. Take away all opportunities for women to have a safe space, leadership opportunities without oppression, and being forced to live in the "good ole boys" world without respite. Of course, since women aren't paid equally, I suppose their alumnae withholding donations or the like wouldn't have much of an effect.

From Vanity Fair: What’s Really Behind the Civil War to End Harvard’s Fraternities?

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2...ender-neutral/

more info on the policy
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2...-stay-mainbar/

Reading that Vanity Fair article... wow... what a shitshow. I think closing shop is the ethical thing to do for Greek organizations. If they chose to stay and fight the good fight, they are potentially putting anyone who signs up for their cause at risk of losing a Harvard education worth potentially millions of dollars.

Interestingly, I scoured the internet for information about Fleur De Lis, which is actually on Facebook as The Fleur. There isn't a single guy outside of what looks to be their formal, who I may wrongly be assuming, but are the dates of the women.

I also read that Vanity Fair article, and there is no better word for it than shitshow. And I still don't get what the purpose is. It's a shame that they have forced this issue so far.

Um no. I know I’ve told the story on here of the little sisters who basically ran the fraternity because the brothers were feather heads, but that is an anomaly. Brothers and little sisters have two different pledge programs and two different initiation rituals. It was not, repeat, NOT, anything you could call a “multi gender collegiate group.” Especially since in many cases, the little sisters could also belong to NPC sororities.

That’s unnecessarily harsh. These collegians are giving up scholarship money and campus positions that could help them in their future career if they stay in Greek organizations. It would be wonderful if none of the members had to worry about things like that, but probably the only students who don’t are the ones that Harvard administration think all Greeks are - the outrageously rich with family connections who really don’t have to worry about grades. If the chapters ended up being solely composed of such students, Harvard would just point to it as “see, we were right when we said this is what Greeks are about.”

If this kind of ridiculousness keeps up, Harvard will become such a laughingstock that a degree from them won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on.

My favorite part of that article (other than the fact that one of Edie Sedgwick’s nephews or cousins wrote it) was where sexual assaults were being blamed on the final clubs, and then it was discovered 75% had actually occurred in dorms...but of course the idea of single sex dorms was verboten.

Where did you hear that? I have not seen an official announcement from EO and I’ve been following this story closely because I’m so passionate about it.

The Harvard GLOs are just collateral damage from the Harvard war on the all male finals clubs. Part of it is a revenge of the nerds against the clubs. The Harvard administrators believe the clubs would never ask them to join when they were undergrads so they must be destroyed.

This kind of dumbassery is why everyone hates liberals.

[/URL]https://s3.amazonaws.com/dg-library/...ss-Release.pdf

It was announced on DG’s webpage in May.

good grief, Kevin. I have come to expect more from you. Where did THIS come from? "everyone" ???? my goodness! That's one very broad brush full of ugly tar you just swiped. I will attribute your out of character misstep to the heat.

On another note:as a matter of fact, related to the Sedgwick family, I have more than passing knowledge of this family. They are in another sphere altogether. I recommend reading In My Blood, written by John Sedgwick (the author of the VF article cited in this thread.

Kyra Sedgwick, actor and wife of Kevin Bacon, is part of that extensive "blue-blooded" family. Putting it here for others. Interesting history if you are into that kind of thing.

In the meantime, the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.

Shouldn't have said that, not meaning to try to wade into politics, but this kind of idiocy in academia is often used to paint with exactly that broad of a brush.

And racism.

This breaks my heart! I know a lovely young Theta legacy who will be starting school there in the fall and was SO excited for recruitment (regardless of her membership invitation outcome). Such a shame.

Thanks. Don’t know how I missed that. Very sad.

It looks like there are NPHC members at Harvard, but the chapters are actually citywide chapters that encompass members from several Boston area colleges. Are the Harvard students in these chapters also being threatened with these same sanctions or the fact that the chapters are off campus and contain members in a variety of schools saving them from the same scrutiny? If that's the case, couldn't some of the NPC organizations do something new and not only establish off-campus chapters, but make them open to women in other schools that don't have NPC chapters such as Wellesley?

They could feasibly start up a Cambridge Alumnae Chapter that’s incorporated outside the school, if there isn’t one there already.

I’m sure it took NPHC groups a while to perfect the organization of citywide chapters and for NPCs to attempt it while they are more or less under duress might not be prudent.

Wellesley is not close enough to be feasible to share a chapter with as far as undergrads without transportation go..... I don't know of any NPC orgs that do regional undergrad chapters.... this could be a consideration with other Boston city schools?

The policy is about members of unrecognized groups. City-wide chapters are in the same boat as a chapter comprised of solely Harvard students.

https://nicindy.org/1377/news/frater...organizations/

I knew what you meant and you are exactly right. Even many people who think sororities are dumb will be offended by the fact that the women are basically being forced to close by elite SJWs (in their eyes).

My response to things like this is "Creating Trump Voters One Stupid Situation at a Time."

But....

Thinking it is worse for the women to lose their groups than it is for the men to lose theirs is kind of the same mindset Harvard is presenting. It sucks for everyone.

The real danger is that what is going on at Harvard will spread to other private universities. Harvard has such influence over PC administrators in the education establishment. Don't be surprised if this is just the start. Look for Yale to go after the all male secret societies.

Years ago I read Elizabeth Wurtzel’s book Prozac Nation and she talks about her experience of busting her butt excelling so she could get into Harvard, and then getting there, and realizing it was just a place like any other place, it wasn’t magic, and her classmates were 17-22 year olds with bad decision making skills and raging hormones, just like anywhere else. Banning fraternities and sororities isn’t going to ban behaviors.

I certainly haven't heard of any NPC orgs with regional undergrad chapters. There might even be something in the Unanimous Agreements prohibiting it.

I'm an alumna of MIT, so I'm very familiar with the Boston/Cambridge area. MIT students, particularly undergrads, are actively discouraged from bringing cars to campus. I imagine the same is true at Harvard. And Wellesley students driving to Harvard would be hard pressed to find parking. (You can't "pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd".) IIRC, Alpha Kappa Alpha has a chapter with members from MIT, Harvard, and Wellesley, but I have no idea how they get around the transportation logistics. Back in my day, MIT and Wellesley had a cross-registration program, and there was a shuttle bus so that students could get back and forth, but that wouldn't help the Harvard students. Of course, there are plenty of other schools in the Boston/Cambridge area that are reachable by bus or T.

Back on topic - I'm sorry to hear that Theta at Harvard is shutting down because of Harvard's ban on single-sex organizations.

some of the other NPHC groups are similar.
Alpha Phi Alpha (Rho Nu encompasses MIT, Harvard and Tufts)
Omega Psi Phi (Gamma encompasses BU, BC, Emerson, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern Tufts and UMass-Boston)

More info
 

I think the sororities would have tried to continue, but the number of women who signed up for recruitment was less than half from prior years (as this was first year PNMs were subject to sanctions), making it hard for some to continue financially. Becoming gender neutral groups, they will basically continue as before but as private finals clubs where members will not be sanctioned. Bear in mind all will be open to male members, but will be allowed to be "female focused", so highly lilely there will be no men lining up to join. In the end, Harvard will have created gender neutral clubs in name only exclusive to Harvard.

SAE has a Boston-citywide chapter for all 4-year schools that don't already have an active SAE chapter. It's been done before in the city by non-NPHC groups (who don't have as much experience running a citywide chapter), so perhaps they will pick up some Harvard students as well or inspire other groups to do something similar.

I believe AEPi also does citywide groups in cities where there isn't one school with a critical mass of Jewish students large enough to support a healthy chapter on its own.

https://www.bostonsae.com/about-us.html

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2...-gamma-closes/
Published 8-5-2018

So this leaves Alpha Phi, the last of the four sororities to charter and now—the last one left. It seems pointless to stay; but I guess you can have a Panhel with just one group. But when recruitment begins...and I can’t imagine many women will now be interested—will they have to bid EVERY WOMAN who goes through recruitment? It will be interesting to see.

I don't understand the point of forcing Greek organizations to become mixed gender. Why can't we take the approach that we take with sports teams. No one is asking for NCAA teams to mix genders instead it's a kind of separate but equal situation.

If there were sororities but no fraternities or fraternities and no sororities I might be able to understand the argument that one gender is being discriminated against but since both genders have groups why can't separate but equal be acceptable in this situation.