Word: membership
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...rather more than a year the Crimson has reported and supported a campaign, first to dissociate the College from the Final Clubs and, now, to persuade students that membership in them is dishonorable. Given the modest role of the Clubs in the life of the College, they seem a curious target for such sustained reformist zeal. It is hard to resist the suspicion that a pinch of self-righteousness and a dollop of envy are amongst the campaigners' motivations...
...exclusivity of the Final Clubs is based more on chance than on any special merit common to the members. (As, to some extent, is membership in Harvard College itself; residence in a sparsely populated state distinguishes many a successful applicant from Great Neck peers consigned to the Other Place.) Those chances once included being of the right sex, income bracket, family, race, and religion. Now only one circumstance remains sine qua non. As the luck of being born female is prerequisite to becoming a Cliffie, that of being born male is necessary to becoming a Clubbie...
...including members, will argue that membership in the Clubs is central to life at Harvard today. I have yet to encounter a student who felt his College career wasted for lack of membership in a Club, though some, no doubt suffer mild disappointment. The possibility of belonging simply leavens the loaf for those eligible and interested, while inflicting little harm on any interested but ineligible. In treating the matter otherwise, I believe that the College has erred, confusing licit discrimination with that which is properly abjured...
...Wednesday--Arthur J. Moneybags VI is stripped of his one-week-old membership in the prestigious Porcellian Club, when it discovers that Moneybags Petroleum Co. has filed for Chapter 77 bankruptcy in Houston. "This is no downscale frat," sniffs a Porc spokesman...
...admits that discrimination against religious believers is "something we haven't yet overcome," although he maintains it is not government policy. He says that freedom of religion "is an inalienable right of the individual," but, because of past tensions, he still supports the exclusion of Christians from Communist Party membership, which effectively prevents them from holding important government posts. What does the Vatican make of Castro's friendship campaign? "So far we have only words," says one official. "We want to see acts...