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Harvard College will no longer enforce a 2016 policy that imposes sanctions on single-gender organizations, such as fraternities and sororities, that are not affiliated with the college, President Lawrence Bacow said in a message this week to students and staff members. The policy barred members of these groups from receiving college fellowships or holding leadership positions in recognized organizations and varsity sports teams, and was challenged in federal court by campus fraternities and sororities in December 2018.
Bacow said the college expects the ongoing lawsuit to result in the policy's removal due to the June 15 Supreme Court decision that extended employment protections against discrimination based on sex to LGBTQ people. The policy does not address sexual orientation or gender identity, but enforcing it could have an impact on transgender students.
Dani Weatherford, CEO of the National Panhellenic Conference, and Judson Horras, CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference, which represent national fraternities and sororities, said in a joint statement reacting to the policy removal that “the discriminatory nature of Harvard’s policy was apparent long ago.”
“Our focus has always been on the freedom of association rights of students and on the particularly acute harm that this policy has done to women’s-only organizations on Harvard’s campus,” the statement said. “Today’s announcement from the university is nothing short of an admission that their policy was misguided and openly discriminatory based on sex.”
