IVORY TOWERS: Skull and Bones controversy

Women won the gender war at Yale University 22 years ago. Or so they thought. Though the school first admitted women in 1969, at Yale's oldest social club, the Skull and Bones society, the women's movement has just begun. Last April, members of the all-male senior society -- whose alumni include President Bush and conservative columnist William Buckley -- created a furor among conservative alumni by "tapping" seven women to join their secret club this semester. Now, despite a membership-wide vote to allow women into the elite club, the co-educational status of the society is still unclear and opposing alumni may yet succeed in keeping women out. · Last month, a group of eight alumni, including Buckley, obtained a court order preventing current Bonesmen from initiating six Boneswomen into the 159-year-old society. The injunction was part of a lawsuit the eight alums filed objecting to the Skull and Bones organization-wide vote last summer. Rather than go to court where society members may have had to reveal the group's deepest and darkest secrets, members agreed instead to decide the matter once and for all at a special membership meeting later this month. The special meeting is a last ditch attempt by those who filed the suit to overturn the 368 to 320 vote in favor of admitting women. Based on that vote last summer, the eight-member alumni board of Bonespeople gave current Bonesmen the go-ahead to initiate the Boneswomen this fall. The controversy started last April, when class of 1991 Bonesmen tapped seven women after waiting fruitlessly for an alumni board decision on the issue of admitting women to the society. Immediately after the minor rebellion, the alumni board changed the locks on the society's "tomb" -- it's official meeting place on Yale's campus. They refused to acknowledge the new group of initiates, saying the tap was void and illegal, and would not open the doors of the sarcophagus for weeks. During that time, the young Bonesmen remained strong and convinced six of the women to join their group. They insisted that they would continue with all the pre-initiation rites outside the crypt, if necessary, until alumni changed their minds. After the summer vote, the alumni board gave the new delegation its blessing and the class of 1992 members thought they had finally sent the opposition to the grave. · Skull and Bones is a secret senior society formed on Yale's campus 159 years ago. It is considered to be the most prestigious of at least a dozen such societies on campus and is one of only two that has remained all-male. The closest the University gets to having a Skull and Bones is the Sphinx Society, one of three senior honor societies on campus. Alumni estimate that almost century-old Sphinx Society began admitting women 15 to 20 years ago. 1966 College graduate Richard Spiegel, a Sphinx alumnus, said last night he remembers receiving a letter from the Sphinx graduate board asking him to vote on whether or not the society should admit women. "The letter basically said undergraduates wanted to elect women and it said it was their impression that if we didn't vote for it, [the incoming class] would be an empty class," Spiegel said. Women were allowed to join and now make up almost half of the 29 members. Current Sphinx Scribe Maureen Hernandez said last night she thinks Bonesmen will be making a mistake if they do not initiate women into the Yale society. "For our organization, having women there has made it so much more of a prestigious organization to be in," College senior Hernandez said. Similar to the members of the bastions of all-male fraternities that cover the nation's campuses, Skull and Bones alumni -- whose names read like a Who's Who in America -- appeal to tradition to keep women out of their secret society. They claim admitting women would change the nature of the group and render some initiation rites impossible to perform. "The issue really is, in a nutshell, essentially who runs the organization," Sid Lovett, the alumni board's spokesperson said last spring. "Undergraduates don't make policy changes. They were unauthorized." But as 1991 Bonesmen stated in a letter to alumni immediately after their precedent-setting tap, waiting for the alumni board to implement change "would have been condemning the Bones to a slow death on the fringes of a co-ed world." "The Bones is . . . perceived by the larger Yale community as both drastically out-of-step with Yale and, what's worse, flagrantly discriminatory and bigoted," Bonesmen wrote. The seniors maintain that they did not violate Skull and Bones' gender-neutral by-laws, which simply state that 15 juniors are to be selected for membership each year by the 15 seniors "or in such other manner as the Board of Directors may determine." The issue has caused a rift in the society, as young Bonesmen have criticized their alumni for being "immoral" and behind the times. The seniors said last spring that if the graduates try to keep women out of the society, "they will be tapping the dregs of Yale, who don't mind being in a virulently anti-female organization." Skull and Bones alumni have taken various stances throughout the debate, as evidenced by the close vote last summer. While some members continue to withhold backing, others have given the class of 1992 full-fledged support and plan to travel to campus to help with the ground-breaking initiation. "I am pleased with the decision to admit women to Skull and Bones," Senator David Boren (D-Oklahoma), a class of 1963 graduate said in a statement last week. "I believe that the 1991 group of seniors made the right recommendation to the institution." And a spokesperson for Senator John Chafee (R-Rhode Island), class of 1944, said last night the former Bonesman thinks current students should be allowed to decide the status of women in their group. "Times have changed since he's been there," said Edward Quinlan, Chafee's press secretary. "He has confidence that the present generation of students will make a decision that is best for the organization." However, the ringleader of the eight alums who filed suit, 1950 graduate Buckley, could not be reached for comment. As for President Bush, a Bonesman of the utmost articulation, his press office refuses to acknowledge the issue. "We can't confirm or deny that President Bush is a member," a White House spokesperson said. And in the true spirit of secrecy, the spokesperson said, "We can't confirm or deny the existence of the society."

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