Harvard University's Fox Club is again all male after rejecting nine women who had "provisional" status in the final club, according to university paper The Crimson.
The club admitted some women in October 2015, which led to dissension between graduate and undergraduate club members after Harvard officials urged final clubs to become gender-neutral, The Crimson reported.
The Fox Club's graduate leadership let the women stay in the club as "provisional" members, and some male members also took on that title as a way to show them support. However, the club never invited more women to join, The Crimson reported.
The club's graduate board is revoking all members who have "provisional" status, and has invited only men to reapply for full entry into the group, according to correspondence between Fox graduates that The Crimson uncovered.
"This invite for reapplication does not apply to female members until such time as the club votes successfully to add women to its membership," Daniel T. Skarzynski, former Fox Club undergraduate president, wrote in the correspondence, according to The Crimson.
A recent male graduate said in The Crimson's report that some "provisional" male members might not apply for membership again until women are also allowed.
Douglas W. Sears, a former Harvard graduate board president, slammed the decision. "Some folks certainly know how to get on the wrong side of history voluntarily," Sears said, according to The Crimson.
Success for clubs going gender-neutral has been mixed, according to The Crimson.
A Harvard administration policy announced in May 2016 banned any members of single-gender groups from holding leadership roles or fellowships. Four groups have adopted gender-neutral policies, while others have remained committed to staying single-gender, The Crimson reported.
Harvard has taken strong positions against allegations of sexism. In November, the university's football team was suspended after a discovery that players kept "vulgar and explicit" documents about the appearances of the women's football team, according to The Telegraph.
In June, the university took back admission offers from 10 students they found trading sexually and racially offensive messages on Facebook.
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