Flanagan Final Club Summary

In an opinion piece written for the Washington Post, Caitlin Flanagan, attempts to point out the connection between Harvard’s “Final Clubs” and sexual assault. Flanagan’s argument is based upon the premise that these clubs are non-affiliated with Harvard University, and as such there is little that is able to be done. These “Final Clubs” arose from the ashes of former greek letter organizations, and currently dominate the social scene. Harvard University formed a task force to help reign in the clubs, which have been described as “radioactive.” This term has been used as many of the clubs were found to be the sites of at least one case of sexual assault. In making her case for better sexual assault education and prevention, she cites the missteps that Harvard has taken, but merely only supplies a simple solution. This piece is heavy laden with factual evidence, which all derives from the same source, the Harvard University task force. Flanagan’s writing is heavily biased against these clubs. According to this piece, the dean of Harvard College,

For the case of physical assault she believes the response would be “swift and merciless” with the involvement of police. While it may seem to be black and white the issue of sexual assault falls deeply into a gray-zone, as victims are to emotionally damaged to testify or refuse to turn to police for help. Thus, new federal guidelines, which implement climate surveys and training sessions. These steps attempt to right the major problem, which is the campus culture, not the clubs. Flanagan’s piece is quick to generalize as she compares the “final clubs” to the greek letter organizations at major schools. This generalization fails as the total population of the greek systems at major state schools completely outnumbers many private universities, especially a small highly selective one such as