When people think of social life at Harvard, the image that comes to mind is often not-so-positive. Many of the social organizations with real estate scattered around Harvard Square are exclusive at best and at predatory at worst. This image is largely a product of the history and practices of men’s-only fraternities and final clubs. However, there is another side of Harvard social life that is less often seen—one that attempts to center fellowship and philanthropy, and creates spaces on campus where students can feel safe and free to express themselves. This is the side of Harvard’s social scene occupied by Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs) and sororities.
In 2014, Harvard’s Title IX Office issued a report which found that “other than in dormitories, Final Clubs are the single most likely location for a student to experience a sexual assault.” Indeed, “female Harvard College students participating in Final Club activities are more likely to be sexually assaulted than participants in any other of the student organizations we polled,” the report stated. These conclusions brought to light the massive issues with a social scene characterized by misogyny and gender inequity, and called into question whether such clubs and organizations should be affiliated with Harvard at all. In 2016, Harvard’s administration began imposing sanctions on all single-gender social organizations on campus which prevented members of single-gender social organizations from holding positions in student organizations, captaining varsity teams, or receiving College endorsements for competitive scholarships. Notably, these sanctions applied not just to men’s groups which were involved in many cases of sexual misconduct, but to all single-gender organizations. The sanctions were lifted in June 2020 following a Supreme Court decision in a related case.
In response to sanctioning, many women-only organizations made the decision to open membership to all Harvard students regardless of gender identity. Currently, Harvard hosts eight RSOs, organizations which are “comprised primarily of Harvard College undergraduates, whose purpose is primarily social and which do not discriminate on the basis of gender.” Of the eight RSOs active on campus, five used to be sororities, meaning that membership in these groups was historically limited to women only. Some women’s organizations, however, decided to continue restricting membership to a single gender in protest of what they saw as the administration’s punishment of women’s groups for the misconduct of men’s groups.
One such organization was Alpha Phi. Originally founded in 1872, Alpha Phi has 173 collegiate chapters around the country and over 250,000 members. Alpha Phi’s Harvard chapter, Iota Tau, was founded in 2013 and dedicates itself to the core values of sisterhood, scholarship, and service. According to its president, Anastasia Rhyanych ’22, Alpha Phi was one of four sororities on campus before the sanctions; the other three sororities subsequently became RSOs.
“When sanctions were first implemented, Alpha Phi became the Ivy very temporarily,” Rhyanych explains. “Then when our members decided that, hey, we want to stand up to Harvard, we want to fight for our right to be an exclusively all women-identifying group, that’s when the split happened,” between the Ivy and Alpha Phi. Rhyanych explains the sorority’s reasoning behind re-adopting a single-gender model of membership: “It was really important for us to fight back against Harvard’s regulation and maintain a sense of women’s empowerment and strong feminist bonds.”
While other formerly women-only organizations agreed to switch to gender-inclusive membership, Alpha Phi asserts the importance of having social spaces on campus dedicated to women. “A lot of the social sphere at Harvard is dominated by men,” Rhyanych reasons. “I think it’s really important for women to feel like they have a safe space where they can be one-hundred percent, unapologetically themselves, not having to worry about their appearance or the way they’re perceived by people they don’t know or people they’re uncomfortable around.”
Speaking about her own experience, Rhyanych says she decided to join Alpha Phi during the spring of her first year. From the start, she felt that Alpha Phi, “was a true sisterhood […] it was so much more about having a support system and women empowering women than it was about the stereotypical partying and having fun.”
The promise of sisterhood also appeals to members of gender-inclusive RSOs on campus. Before Harvard imposed sanctions on single-gender organizations, the now-RSO Themis Asteri (TA) was the Zeta Xi chapter of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. According to their website, the TA decided to begin accepting members of all gender identities in 2018, about two years after Harvard began imposing sanctions on single-gender organizations. The TA states that, “After many discussions, the 2018 leadership chose ‘Themis Asteri’ as the new name for the organization.”
Virginia Tiernan ’22 describes her experience as a member of the TA: “Being a part of The TA at Harvard has allowed me to make some of my closest girlfriends on campus which will last a lifetime. I am thankful to be a part of a group of such incredible, supportive students from a diverse set of concentrations, sports, and other disciplines.” Some of Tiernan’s favorite experiences in the TA include “attending Harvard-Yale together, the Big/Little sister tradition, and group study sessions around campus.”
In addition to providing opportunities for socialization, many RSOs and sororities also place a heavy emphasis on members’ wellbeing. Some, like Alpha Phi, even created institutionalized roles to promote members’ safety. Before becoming president of the sorority, Rhyanych served as its vice president of risk management, a role specifically geared toward ensuring the safety and well-being of sorority members both at social functions and in day-to-day life. “Mostly it was making sure that all our girls were safe,” explains Rhyanych, “Making sure that everyone had each other’s number so that if anything happened, they could always reach out to one of our sisters on-call.”
Though RSOs and sororities have slightly different approaches to the issue of inclusion, both types of organizations seem to be pursuing a common goal: to create a campus that is more comfortable and enjoyable for all Harvard students. That goal is partially achieved through the promotion of fellowship and safety. But it is also achieved through these groups’ insistence that they have the right to exist, to thrive, and to actively contribute to the cultivation of a more welcoming campus.
Cade Williams ’23 (cadewilliams@college.harvard.edu) writes News for the Independent.