Two years ago next week, Lisa J. Schkolnick '88 made a dramatic gesture. She filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) charging the all-male Fly Club with gender discrimination.

But nearly two years later, Schkolnick, now a first-year law student, is still waiting for word from the MCAD on whether it even has jurisdiction in the case.

Campus debate has subsided, and the Fly Club continues to refuse admission to women in its annual, highly secretive "punching" rituals.

Officials at the MCAD have hinted for weeks that a decision would be made "soon." And now they say only that the case will be resolved "shortly."

So once again opponents of the nine all-male final clubs must wait a little longer before their most recent challenge to the group's membership practices is answered.

This latest round in the battle against the clubs began more than five years ago, when the University severed official ties with the clubs after they refused to comply with Harvard's anti-discrimination policies and admit women.

But until Schkolnick's complaint was filed in December of 1987, campus activism about the clubs' discrimination was dormant. With that complaint came a new wave of controversy--and a new undergraduate group formed to rally support for Schkolnick and her cause.

Last spring, that new group--called Stop With-holding Access Today (SWAT)--was added as a co-complainant in the MCAD case, along with Schkolnick, who was then studying in Cairo for a year.

But since then, the state agency has not been heard from.

Their official line is simply that the case is a difficult one, and that it takes time to do a thorough job examining its subtleties.

MCAD Commissioner Kathleen M. Allen will only say, "The case is still under investigation in the legal department." But she does add that the commission has been working "as quickly as we could."

Allen says that additional issues have been raised during the investigation of the case, "and these are not ones we want to see dealt with summarily. They deserve careful attention."

But Kevin G. Baker, the lawyer for Schkolnick and SWAT, says, "I think the commission has had ample time to come to a decision."

Never Famous for Speed

"The commission has never been famous for speed," notes Baker, who works at the Boston firm of Shilepsky, Messing and Rudavsky. "I am not terrifically surprised."