Baker Library at Harvard Business School – Massachusetts, United States. By Leonid Andronov @ Adobe Stock
With parents, alumni, and donors on the warpath against Ivy League university administrators who have allowed, and even encouraged, radical progressive politics to engulf their storied institutions, is it safe to say that the Ivy League is no longer cool? Ivy League social clubs are bleeding members, perhaps as alumni no longer want to associate themselves too closely with the schools. Neil Mehta reports in The Wall Street Journal:
The Princeton Club in New York City was losing members and bleeding cash before closing its doors in October 2021. Some remaining members explored a last-ditch overhaul to the six-decade-old property that served the Ivy League school’s alumni.
They explored ways to bring the club into the 21st century, make it less stuffy and more appealing to younger alumni who weren’t tied to the club’s nearly 160-year history. One proposed modernization called for a new co-working area, a cafe that spilled onto the sidewalk, and a fourth-floor lounge with a bar, according to a presentation to board members viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
But those plans stalled before they even got going. A creditor foreclosed on the property late last year, and the club remains closed. Any future renovation at the 10-story clubhouse with a gray limestone facade is uncertain.
New York’s storied Ivy League club circuit dates back to the 19th century. For years, these membership organizations were considered among the most prestigious in the country.
These days, say alumni and former members, the clubs have fallen out of fashion. The venues are victims of dated decor, mediocre food and in some cases lingering dress codes—for most of their histories, these clubs have required men to wear coats and ties—out of step with young alums.
The clubs still have their loyalists, especially midcareer professionals and long-timers who find them convenient for business meetings and hotel stays. The Harvard Club, the oldest and wealthiest of the bunch, has a membership that is robust and growing, a spokeswoman said.
Losing to the newer member-clubs
Yet more Ivy League graduates are turning to a new generation of private clubs such as Casa Cipriani, Zero Bond and Soho House, amid a new Golden Age for membership clubs with features such as a rooftop pool or an omakase restaurant.“When you hear people talking about clubs they’re excited about, they don’t mention university clubs,” said David Gutstadt, a real-estate developer and Princeton alumnus whose Philadelphia-based firm was consulted to renovate that club before it closed.
The pandemic was another blow to the clubs, which missed out on revenue from their restaurants and other services when the clubs closed because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some fed-up members dropped out for good.
More recently, the rise in campus activism over the war in Gaza has complicated some younger members’ relationship with the clubs. Two recent Ivy League graduates now living in New York City said their colleges’ crackdowns on pro-Palestine protests persuaded them not to join one of their alma mater clubs.
The Ivy League schools with clubs in New York tend to keep most membership and other information private, but some recent events suggest distress.
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