The College Fix

University wants student orgs to ‘come into conformance’ with single-sex sanctions policy

Officials at Harvard are working with some of the last single-sex student organizations and groups on campus, with the university hoping to bring the groups “into conformance” with the school’s recently implemented anti-single-sex sanctions policy.

Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana told The Harvard Crimson that the school is “in dialogue” with single-sex groups to see how they might “modify or change and come into conformance with our university’s policies.”

Khurana “thinks the majority of single-gender organizations hope to eventually become gender-neutral,” according to The Crimson. Khurana told the paper: “Personally, I believe that most of these organizations are trying to find a way to become inclusive and evolve.”

Single-sex groups at Harvard that do not “find a way to become inclusive” face steep sanctions from the university. As The Crimson reports, the sanctions “bar members of single-gender final clubs and Greek organizations from holding campus group leadership positions, varsity athletic team captaincies, and from receiving College endorsement for certain prestigious fellowships like the Rhodes.”

Those sanctions have already led numerous groups on campus to “evolve” into gender-neutral organizations. Late in the summer Harvard’s final single-sex sorority announced it was going co-ed. The threat of sanctions on single-sex sororities led to plummeting recruitment in those groups.

The university had previously pledged to allow a “bridge” program for female-only groups at the university that would have allowed them more time to transition to co-ed. In March of this year the university abruptly backtracked on that promise, mandating that the groups must begin the transition process without the promised three-to-five year delay.

The sorority Kappa Alpha Theta transitioned to co-ed following the implementation of the sanctions. However, that group—renamed Theta Zeta Xi—remains focused on “supporting and empowering women.”

Read The Crimson‘s report here.

MORE: After single-sex group ban, Harvard clubs prepare to sue the university

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