Do Unto Other Harvard Students

At Harvard University, a faculty panel empowered to study undergraduate social organizations like fraternities, sororities, and “final clubs” has issued a controversial new recommendation: that denying official recognition to these groups is not enough—they should be gradually but totally eliminated from campus life.

Their original transgression was discriminating on the basis of gender. But even co-ed versions of these organizations ought to be verboten, according to the panel’s majority. “The Committee considered the importance of allowing our students to select their own social spaces and friends,” their recently released report declared, “but we also recognize principles such as inclusiveness and equality, which many members of the Harvard community consider of paramount importance to our mission."

Concerns about the social organizations are understandable.

For young people, a burdensome aptitude test is all but required to apply; only 5 percent of those who do so are admitted, under opaque,