Fifteen Minutes: The Seneca

Not in the social know? Let FM catch you up on the newest social organization, the Seneca.

Fiction: Seneca members are descendants of suffragists that convened for the first Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848.

Fact: Nineteen then-sophomore girls founded the Seneca after realizing that the Harvard social system was, according to co-president Julia M. Butler '01, "institutionalized and perpetuating."

Fiction: The Seneca is a regular old final club or sorority, but just seems odd because it doesn't have a building.

Fact: The Seneca is not a final club because its application process and main parties are "open." It is not a sorority because it is not part of a nation-wide organization. This should be obvious by the fact that its name does not consist of a couple Greek letters. No female social organizations have buildings. (Please see Butler's quote in previous fact).

Fiction: If the Seneca is neither a final club nor a sorority, it must be a feminist political organization that rose up in response to the death of Radcliffe. Initiation events feature bra-burning.

Fact: The Seneca has some up-there goals--according to co-president Alexandra B. Seru '01, "One goal is that we want to create a support system for owomen and really get to know each other in a non-competitive setting. The other goal is just as important. We want to set up a community for the entire school"--but still is a social organization. Technically Radcliffe did not die, and bras are too expensive these days to burn on a regular basis.

Fiction: Seneca members wanted men to join their group, but men decided that final clubs were much cooler.

Fact: Seneca members do not want the group to be coed. Previous co-president Kirstin E. Butler '01, along with two other members, dropped out within six months of the group's founding. One of their goals for the club had been to begin a dialogue with the male final clubs about becoming coed, and they felt it would be hypocritical to embark on such a task as a single-sex group.

--- Y. JU