A Field Guide to Harvard Elite

Undergraduates on the Spee Club say that their institution is so liberal that, if it weren't for pressure from alumni, the Spee would admit women as members.

Alumni of the Spee Club say the students are so conservative that they have stifled graduates' efforts to invite women to join.

"I've been surprised it hasn't happened," said Peter Scully '58, graduate secretary-treasurer of the Mt. Auburn St. club. "We have constantly addressed this situation, but the undergraduates have always said no, they want to retain it in its present form."

Club officers disagree. "I don't think you could just go ahead and do it. You'd lose too much graduate support," one says.

Even with its ban on female memebrs, the Spee has a history of relative accessibility, at least compared to the other eight clubs. It was apparently the first final club to allow females and non-members into its clubhouse. Today, members' guests may enter all but one room of the club's three-story Georgian brick clubhouse. Like the D.U. and the Fly, the Spee boasts of being the first club to admit a Black member.

Club members, who pay $42 per month in dues, may cat lunch at the club twice a week without additional charge. Members may also bring guests to the lunches, which by all reports, are good evidence of the club's self-styled cosmopolitan image. "Sometimes, there is less English than foreign languages," says member David M. Sultan '84.

While club members boast of the Spee's diversity, only two of the 33 current members are Black, a member says. "We don't have an affirmative action program," one club officer explains.

Scully, who manages the club's finances, declines to disclose the size of the Spee's endowment, but says. "I guess we're better off than most clubs." Despite the club's solven v. Scully says the Spee has suffered from excessive taxation in recent years. "Cambridge taxes have become quite a burden," he says.

To alleviate financial pressures, the club will begin in January to rent out its basement to a tenant. Schoenhof's book store. "It's nice to be able to take a venture like Schoenhof's under our wing," says Scully. "Undergraduates can only pay so much. Clearly, it's s sensible thing to do," he adds.

In addition to the club's facilities--which include a garden, a pool table, a library, a television room and a bar--members say the Spee's greatest assets are its stewards. William Griffen, who has worked there since 1927, and Bill Mazetti, who has been at the Spee for about 20 years. "It's important for us to keep a sense of history," a club officer said. "Bill remembers a lot of the members' fathers."

Among those the club's stewards recall are such prominent Harvard alumni as John F. Kennedy '40 and Robert F. Kennedy '48, as well as prominent local figures such as former gubernatorial candidate John W. Sears '52, who still makes frequent visits to club events.

The Spee's initiation process is less elaborate than that at other clubs--a fact members say is indicative of the "loose" attitude of the club. According to one member, sophomores who are elected are blindfolded and led into the club's library--the only restricted room--where they recite a pledge, tell a few jokes and sing the chorus of the club song. "To the old Zeta Psi" (the club's name in the late 19th century).

"It's nothing like a fraternity initiation," says one member. "It's not like we grease up a pig or anything."