Harvard to bar members of all-male clubs from certain roles

FILE - In this June 30, 2009, file photo, Harvard University President Drew Faust, the university's first female president, poses for a photograph on the university's campus in Cambridge, Mass. Faust announced Friday, May 6, 2016, that students who join Harvard's male-only social clubs won’t be able to serve as sports captains or leaders of other campus groups starting in fall 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this March 13, 2016, file photo, people walk near Memorial Church on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. The university's first female president, Drew Faust, announced Friday, May 6, 2016, that students who join Harvard's male-only social clubs won't be able to serve as sports captains or leaders of other campus groups starting in fall 2017. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File) (The Associated Press)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard University says students who join unofficial male-only social clubs starting in the fall of 2017 won't be able to hold leadership positions in official campus organizations or sports teams.

The university announced the policy Friday with the support of President Drew Faust. It won't affect current students or those planning to enroll at Harvard this fall.

The secretive social clubs are known as final clubs. They've operated on Harvard's campus in some cases for hundreds of years. They are traditionally male-only, and several still exclude women.

Harvard administrators have been pressuring the clubs to accept women, and a recent university report said the clubs contribute to sexual assault on campus.

Faust wrote in a statement that the exclusion practiced by final clubs is at odds with the university's values.