Harvard's Policies Toward GLOs and social clubs

[33girl]

When Dartmouth went coed, a few fraternities also went coed because in their minds, it was a natural progression. This isn't the case here, I believe.

I know that it's a private school and they can do whatever dumb thing they want, but I have a hard time seeing a school who reaches its tentacles even into what students do off campus as "good" or "prestigious."

[naraht]

Originally Posted by 33girl

When Dartmouth went coed, a few fraternities also went coed because in their minds, it was a natural progression. This isn't the case here, I believe.

I know that it's a private school and they can do whatever dumb thing they want, but I have a hard time seeing a school who reaches its tentacles even into what students do off campus as "good" or "prestigious."

I'm going to flip this back to another discussion that was had. Would we have thought less of Harvard or any Ivy League school if they had expelled a neo-nazi/KKK/white nationalist marcher in Charlottesville, Virginia?

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by naraht

I'm going to flip this back to another discussion that was had. Would we have thought less of Harvard or any Ivy League school if they had expelled a neo-nazi/KKK/white nationalist marcher in Charlottesville, Virginia?

I think any such marcher would be violating provisions of any school's Code of Conduct. I think a lot of public schools would probably be swift to expel such individuals regardless of the consequences in court. I know that the two OU SAEs who were expelled for that racist song on the party bus a couple years back accepted the consequences of their actions, though it's clear to me that they both have great cases against the school.

[33girl]

Unless they are meeting illegally or being violent, I'm not sure what code of conduct they would be disobeying. Free speech is free speech, no matter how repugnant. Unfortunately, students (and parents) seem to accept the erosion of that right with nary a peep. If you're talking about Cville specifically, where apparently the proper permits and such were not obtained and violence egged on, that's a different matter.

If off campus GLOs are prohibited, what's next? Political organizations? Activities espousing a goal someone in the college administration might not like, no matter how benign it is?

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Unless they are meeting illegally or being violent, I'm not sure what code of conduct they would be disobeying. Free speech is free speech, no matter how repugnant. Unfortunately, students (and parents) seem to accept the erosion of that right with nary a peep.

As Kevin has noted, free speech as a "right"—in the sense of the First Amendment—is pretty much irrelevant at a private school like Harvard. It's the government that can't infringe on a person's free speech rights. Students at a public university can potentially claim that the university, as an arm of the government, has violated their free speech rights. Students at a private university don't have much in the way of free speech rights that the university is legally required to recognize, so private universities can, through their codes of conduct, prohibit speech deemed hateful, disrespectful or repugnant.