Fly and D.U. Final Clubs Decide to Merge Assets, Alumni Membership

Within two weeks, the 116-year-old D.U. Club will close its doors forever, when a merger between the Fly and D.U. consolidates the assets and alumni membership of the two clubs.

But in the merger, the student membership of the now-defunct D.U. Club has been left out in the cold.

"They didn't merge the membership," said a disappointed David M. Sprinkle '96, former vice president of the D.U. "They should have. That's the worst part."

The merger will result in a new corporation, housed at 2 Holyoke Place, the current site of the Fly Club, according to Louis I. Kane '53, president of the graduate board of the D.U. Club. Income earned from rental of the D.U. clubhouse will go to support this new corporation, which will retain the Fly Club's name.

Possible renters include the University and several investment banking and consulting firms, said J. Michael Zuromskis '60, treasurer of the D.U.'s graduate board.

Grad Board v. Members

Graduate board members of the D.U. said their incentive to merge the clubs stemmed from the highly active alumni association of the Fly Club.

Where D.U. alums met annually in Boston and New York, those of the Fly hold parties all over the United States and are planning a meeting in London before the end of the year, according to Zuromskis.

Recent events, however, seem to indicate that the Fly Club's alumni perks were not the only reason for the D.U. Club's close.

Simmering tensions between grad board members and undergraduates erupted when John Burnham, a football recruit from Maryland, was seriously injured in a fight with club member Sean M. Hansen '95 at the club in March 1995.

After the fight, the club closed its doors for "a cooling-off period," and the D.U. never reopened.

The fight was the final fissure for a club whose membership had been growing apart from the graduate board and alumni who essentially subsidized them.

According to sources, the D.U. had once been an intellectual "gentlemen's" club. In more recent years, however, the membership has mostly been drawn from the football team.

As one justification for the club's closing, alumni argued that the current D.U. members had allowed virtually an open-door policy in the club. But members protested that bringing friends to the club for a beer or a game of pool after the bars in the Square close is common practice in all final clubs.

So in September when the graduate board proposed a 2 a.m. curfew, a ban on kegs and a increase in dues from $50 to $100 a month, the membership balked and the club remained closed.

By the late fall, "we had been without a club for a while," said Andrew M. Laurence '97. "So we went to the grad board and told them that everyone here is willing to pay the dues and would go by the rules."

The graduate board was not receptive to members' pleas. "They tried to wipe their hands of us. They were looking for us to say we didn't want the club," Laurence said.

When the Fly Club approached the D.U. with an offer to merge the two clubs, Kane said, the D.U. responded favorably.

Grad board and student D.U. members consistently denied rumors that the D.U. was on shaky fiscal ground.

"The D.U. is a financially solid club," said Zuromskis, citing outside income from J. Press and donations from "a generous group of graduates."

The club also recently attempted a capital campaign to raise one million dollars, but was only able to raise $500,000, according to several club members. The money raised went towards the renovation of the club-house, leaving no money for an endowment fund.

According to a letter from the graduate board to the alumni membership earlier this year, the building is now appraised at $2.5 million.

Fly Club grad board members were unavailable for comment on the merger. Undergraduates, however, said they were confused about the partnership.

The Fly and the D.U. are different cultures, explained a surprised junior member who wished to remain anonymous.

Indeed, the merger may not do much to change the character of the Fly, because former members of the D.U. will not be extended automatic membership. Rather, D.U. members will have to undergo the punching process once again to gain admission to the Fly Club next year, Sprinkle said. This means that senior D.U. members, although considered graduate members of the merged entity, are now clubless.

"[The merger] screwed a lot of seniors and screwed a lot of juniors," said Sprinkle. "You can't punch into another club for the last six months of the year."

The Inter-Club Council (ICC) declared all D.U. juniors eligible to join other clubs, making an exception to its rule against changing club membership.

Former D.U. members have no advantage over any other students trying to punch a club, said Sprinkle. Only one former D.U. member has been said to have already joined another club after participating in a spring punch, he added.

When asked how the D.U. membership feels about the merger, Kane said, "I assume that they probably don't feel too good about it, but the undergraduate body would not agree to the house rules that the trustees felt were necessary."

According to Zuromskis, however, "most are very happy.... I've heard no complaints."

Mergers: A New Trend?

Zuromskis, the D.U.'s representative to the ICC, predicts several more club mergers over the next 10 years.

Though Zuromskis said that "the club system is alive and well at Harvard," he noted that mergers like the D.U. and the Fly's result in clubs that will be financially sound for the next 50 years.