The Fox Club is a private all-male final club of Harvard undergraduate students founded in 1898. The Fox Club is not officially affiliated with Harvard University. It is located on John F. Kennedy Street in Harvard Square.
History
The Fox Club was founded in 1898 by six undergraduate students at Harvard University. It is an all-male final club.[1][2] Originally known as the Digamma Club, the name Fox and the club's symbol, a fox carrying the letter "F", grew from the similarity between the letter "F" and the archaic Greek character for "digamma", which primarily signifies the number 6.[3]
Harvard attempted to impose sanctions against members of single-gender final clubs, preventing members from holding student group leadership positions, serving as varsity athletic team captains, and from having fellowships endorsed by the college.[4][2] However, after acknowledging that this policy against final clubs violated federal law, Harvard rescinded all sanctions in 2019.[5]
In 2015, the Fox Club was one of the first of Harvard's final clubs to contemplate admitting women, but only on a provisional basis by the club's undergraduate board.[2] In an August 2015 vote by the club's undergraduate members, nine women were given provisional membership.[4] This vote was taken without input from the club's graduate members who revoked the nine women's provisional membership.[2][4][6]
In May 2019, The Harvard Crimson reported that a vote of all Fox Club graduate members had failed to reach the two-thirds affirmative majority necessary to change membership policies.[7][8]
Symbols
The club's nickname is the Fox.[1] Its symbol is an upright fox carrying the letter "F".[3]