Fraternities, sororities sue Harvard over single-sex rule
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Several national fraternities and sororities sued Harvard University on Monday over a 2016 rule that discourages students from joining single-gender social clubs, marking the first legal challenge to the school’s policy.
Two fraternities and two sororities filed a lawsuit in Boston’s federal court, while another sorority separately sued the school in Massachusetts state court. Both cases argue that the school’s policy discriminates against students based on their sex and spreads negative stereotypes about students who join all-male or all-female organizations.
Harvard officials did not immediately provide a comment about the lawsuits.
Similar legal challenges have been rare but not unheard of. Wesleyan University was sued by one of its two fraternities after the Connecticut school ordered them to go co-ed in 2014. A jury sided with the fraternity last year, but the school is appealing the decision.
At Harvard, single-gender groups aren’t banned, but students who join them are barred from leading campus groups or becoming captains of sports teams. The school also refuses to endorse the students for prestigious fellowships, including the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships. Harvard officials crafted the rule to curb secretive all-male groups known as “final clubs,” whose members include some former U.S. presidents but have come under mounting scrutiny in recent years. A 2016 report by the school accused the clubs of having “deeply misogynistic attitudes” and tied them to problems with sexual assaults.
But the rule also applies to other groups, including fraternities, sororities and even choir groups that have gone co-ed amid pressure from the school. The lawsuits argue that the rule has primarily harmed women’s groups, many of which have disbanded or started accepting men to avoid the school’s sanctions.
“These students are being punished simply for joining private, off-campus, lawful organizations,” Laura Doerre, former international president of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, said at a news conference Monday. “They are being punished for being women who simply want to have an association with other women.”
Harvard does not officially recognize any fraternities or sororities, but several have been available to Harvard students in the past, typically with houses near campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Membership in women’s clubs was at a record high before the rule took effect, according to the groups behind the suits. Now, they say, students feel they’re forced to hide ties with those groups.
Rebecca Ramos, a 2017 Harvard graduate and former president of the school’s Delta Gamma sorority chapter, said there’s a “culture of fear” among current and former members of single-gender clubs. She said some have been asked about their involvement during interviews for law school or fellowships.