Members of Harvard all-male clubs to be banned from campus leadership

CAMBRIDGE, MA (WTXF/AP) - Harvard University - with the world's best and brightest - has a long history of unofficial male-only social clubs.

Now, the school says students who join them won't be able to hold leadership positions in official campus organizations or sports teams.

The new policy was announced Friday and it'll take effect starting in the fall of 2017. It won't affect current students or those planning to enroll this fall.

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

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

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