Phi Delta Kappa Will Protest Hearing

An emergency meeting of the executive board of Harvard's Phi Delta Kappa educational fraternity last night decided on measures to protest International Phi Delta Kappa's threat of expelling the Harvard chapter for admitting women.

The eight board members present at last night's meeting voted to send at least one male and one female delegate to the Jan. 26, 1973 hearing on the chapter's suspension. Chapter president LeBaron C. Moseby Jr. and vice-president Virginia C. Barcus were chosen as delegates.

The board also agreed to send letters of protest from the chapter president and the executive board to Lowell C. Rose, executive secretary of International Phi Delta Kappa.

Paul N. Ylvisaker, dean of the Faculty of Education, has said that he will send a letter to the international organization threatening to refuse Graduate School of Education facilities to organizations practicing discrimination.

The group decided to contact prominent members of Phi Delta Kappa and other professional, honorary and educational associations and ask them to exert pressure on the international executive board which will be deciding the issue.

Letters notifying the Harvard chapter's membership of the actions are scheduled to be mailed later this week.

Although the board members at last night's meeting were confident that a majority of the chapter's membership supported inclusion of women in the chapter even at the risk of chapter suspension, they were largely resigned to losing the chapter on constitutional grounds.

Partly in anticipation of the international board's decision, the group decided to publicize the hearing in order to build up support for an amendment to be introduced at the organization's next national convention in October 1973 which would open fraternity membership to women. The Harvard chapter has introduced the same amendment at the past two biennial gatherings.

"It's a question now of alterting the world to their the international board members' sexist position," Moseby said yesterday.

Representatives from Harvard, Columbia, New York University and other chapters are discussing the possibility of creating an alternative organization. Moseby said last night.

The initiation fees of the 38 Harvard women refused admission to Phi Delta Kappa were returned to the chapter. The board voted to hold the money in escrow "as evidence of our faith" that the women would later be admitted. Moseby said.