Boycott the Clubs

EVERYONE experiences a few infamous "firsts" at Harvard. The first walk to the Quad. The first time lotteried out of a Core course. That first glorious mouthful of venerable vegetables.

Not all Harvard rites of passage can be laughed off after a few slugs of Pepto-Bismol, however. Sometimes students are better left uninitiated. A good time to just say no is when you receive invitations to parties or punching events at one of the Harvard community's nine all-male final clubs.

That's right, the final clubs--those "social organizations" scattered around campus that have attracted quite a bit of attention in recent years. For first-year students who missed the rallies, cook-out and discrimination complaints of past years, here is a simplified primer.

Final clubs do not admit women, except during special occasions such as parties, when they admit lost of them. Some people believe this is discrimination, largely because it is discrimination. Final club members say they just want to male bond, except during parties, when they have other things on their minds.

The clubs' discrimination is a lot like a cockroach: try as you might to stamp it out, it refuses to die. And there is always that burning question about whether all-male clubs have some "right to exist."

AS a legal question, the Massachussets Commission Against Discrimination, a quasi-judicial body, will decide whether the clubs should be required to admit women. As a philosophical question, final clubs will always be debated and never resolved. But as a practical question, the solution for students is obvious: Males and females should boycott the clubs.

Why contribute to sexism, even if it does have a "right to exist?" Why participate in a tradition that once combined institutional racism, anti-Semitism and elitism (and some say still does). Why even go to a punching event at a club that treats all women--and most men--as second-class citizens?

Tuxedo-clad sophomore males will be out in full force in the coming weeks. They'll be smiling and laughing in their attempts to impress veteran clubbies with their wit, their style and, in many cases, their father's net worth. It may be their first entrance into the discriminatory, closed-minded world of the clubs. For many, unfortunately, it won't be their last.