Shutterstock
Last year, Harvard threatened to ban all fraternity members from holding athletic captaincies and any university leadership position if they remain a single-gender social group by 2021…despite the existence of sororities. In addition, these chapters would not be eligible from receiving endorsements for top fellowships like the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships even though the school doesn’t have an official affiliation to Greek life.
To be clear: even though Harvard does not formally recognize greek life around campus, they are still enforcing a gender-neutral precedent.
Female organizations tied to Greek Row protested and were granted a three to five year grace period after the 2021 deadline. The male organizations did not receive the same treatment. Since then, there’s been no movement from school fraternities or the university. Unfortunately, that standoff ended when former home of Mark Zuckerberg, Alpha Epsilon Pi, crossed the picket line.
Via Boston.com:
“Ultimately, fraternity members voted in support of an open rush, meaning that it will have to break its affiliation with Alpha Epsilon Pi because the national leadership would not allow the fraternity to retain its chapter status while also admitting women.
“This is not what we wanted; ideally we would remain a part of AEPi and nationals would recognize us breaking down the discriminatory barriers to joining our chapter,” chapter president Jake Ascher said in a statement. “Though this is not the case, we remain resolute with our goal and we can say that all of our members will leave AEPi to form a new group.”
We only have one thing to say to that…
