UC Leaders Have ‘Concerns’ About Social Group Policy Recommendations

Members of the Undergraduate Council met with Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana on Tuesday night to discuss the recommended expansion of the College's penalties on members of single-gender social groups.

A committee charged with implementing the policy recommended Monday that members of single-gender final clubs and Greek organizations be barred from leadership positions on both the UC and The Crimson. While Khurana wrote Monday that he will consider that particular suggestion further, he accepted the vast majority of the committee's recommendations.

The committee also recommended that the Honor Council help enforce the policy—which bars students in single-gender social groups from holding leadership positions on student groups and receiving some post-graduate fellowships. A separate faculty committee could revise or replace the policy by the fall.

In their first public comments on the new suggestions, UC President Yasmin Z. Sachee '18 and UC Vice President Cameron K. Khansarinia '18 said they have “concerns” about the committee’s wide-reaching report. During their campaign for Council leadership, both Sachee, a member of the all-female Bee Club, and Khansarinia said they disapproved of the policy.

“Over the past week we have read and reviewed the USGSO sanctions policy. Like many students we still have concerns about the policy and its lack of specificity in mechanism. We will continue to act on our promise from the fall to engage students in high-level decision making processes from which we have been so often left out,” Sachee and Khansarinia wrote in a statement.

The duo said they intend to work with the faculty committee—led by Khurana and music professor Suzannah Clark—assigned to reevaluate the sanctions policy. At the UC's general meeting on Feb. 26, Khansarinia asked UC members for their thoughts on the committee's proposals.

Members were split on the issue, with some arguing that the UC should be subject to sanctions and others saying administrators should not have a say in who is eligible for UC leadership.

Khurana, Sachee, and Khansarinia all said they look to continue discussing the Council’s role in the policy.

Khurana wrote in an emailed statement that he hopes to work with UC to ensure the policy’s success.

“We have a unique opportunity to create an undergraduate community rooted in inclusion, not exclusion,” he wrote. “Our goal is to co-create a social context in which our shared norms are opening doors, not closing them.

“As a group of student leaders, the Undergraduate Council plays a critical role in shaping and advancing these norms," he added.

—Staff writer Andrew J. Zucker can be reached at andrew.zucker@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @AndrewJZucker.