When schools closed due to the Covid 19 pandemic, so did all the Highland clubs. Many came back, but two never recovered — Highland Associated Men and Highland Associated Women.
Commonly known as HAM and HAW, the clubs disappeared, and the decision was made to eliminate them entirely.
These clubs were a branch of student government and had elected positions similar to SBOs. Anyone could join these clubs, the one exception being gender, all they had to do was attend a specific number of school events. They were thought of as a glorified student section, similar to Highland’s current Black Hole.
Outside of attending events, putting on HAM and HAW week, and hosting a fathers and daughters dance, their main role was participating in entertaining competitions during assemblies and the sprit bowl. The clubs would compete against each other often doing tasks that followed outdated and misogynistic ideas.
This is shown in excepts from the Highland yearbook, the Highlander, over many years.
The 2009-2010 yearbook features pictures of HAM performing their “HAM dance”. This includes the boys dressed up in sparkly leotards impersonating the Highland dance team. The 1978-79 yearbook features a summary of HAW week highlighting events that the girls club put on.
“Secret fantasies came true when a sampling of Highland women were given the opportunity to try their hand at modeling. With quivering smiles and self-conscious walks, they discovered that it wasn’t as easy as it looked,” 1978 to 1979 yearbook.
The outdated ideals that were represented by these clubs were shown in the 1986-1987 summery of HAM’s year.
“HAM could be described as a fun group of eligible men and it can be said the Highland’s women truly needed this organization,” 1986 to1987 yearbook.
Highland was the last school in Salt Lake District that still had these clubs prior to the pandemic, and many administrators and staff did not see benefits to Highland’s school spirit. They felt that the school should not be supporting a club that was not inclusive towards everyone.
“It was started in a time where things were different and there was more focus on gender roles, and that has changed a lot in the past 20 to 30 years,” Highland principal Jeremy Chatterton said.
In addition to feedback from staff, in 2020 the federal government made massive changes to the Department of Education that called for a reevaluation of the preexisting Title IX regulation. This led to the extinction of HAM and HAW. Title IX is a long-standing federal education amendment that is concerned with sex-based discrimination. These changes forced schools to reevaluate their clubs and policies to realign with new amendments.
Since HAM and HAW were gender exclusive, they violated this regulation by not allowing open membership.
“The most important piece to me was students being able to belong to any club at their public school,” student government advisor Julie Davidson said. “I understand why it needed to leave student government because it didn’t represent every student and had very specific membership.”
As an alternative to these more exclusive clubs, some students volunteered the idea of creating Highland Associated Students. This would allow a long-standing tradition to continue in a way that reflected the world today.
With the proper changes, Davidson believes this new club could have complied with the Title IX guidelines and allowed all students the choice to take part in a school organization.
“I wish students had taken up the banner to start the club,” Davidson said.
Moving forward with the times the ending of HAM and HAW was inevitable. Chatterton, along with many other staff, believe this was the best choice for the school and a kinder more inclusive environment.
“It was kind of like this is one of those things that’s dying out and we need to be part of that,” Chatterton said.
