The first door slammed closed Jan. 20. And the bang was heard across campus.

In the course of five months, final clubs, the single-sex social organizations with a lengthy legacy at Harvard, have undergone a complete metamorphosis from fraternity-like party hot spots to their gentlemen's club roots.

Twenty years ago, most undergraduates had never heard of a final club, let alone visited one. But over the past two decades, as the clubs allowed non-members to enter, and as the randomization of the Houses detracted from campus social life, the clubs' buildings took on the role of party venues.

Even before the guest policies changed, though, there were signs that the clubs were not pleased with their perceived obligation to the student body.

A.D. President John H. "Jake" Heller '99 said the clubs felt a need to give students the kind of social life the College does not offer.

"We bear the social responsibilities of frats," Heller said. "We are losing our identity as anything more than a social provider."

The only exception to this transformation was the Porcellian club, founded in 1792 and the oldest of the organizations, which has never entertained non-members in its Mass Ave. building.

Graduate members of the other clubs, who fondly recall the buildings as quiet places for reading the paper or drinking with the boys, rather than open, late night parties, were not fans of the apparent change in the clubs' mission.

Rev. Douglas W. Sears '69, president of the Inter-Club Council, said graduate members believe Harvard should carry more of the social burden and allow the clubs to return to their original purpose.

"My rallying cry for the last 10 years I've been involved in this is 'more club, less frat,'" Sears said.

Phoenix S. K. (PSK) club Graduate President Andrew F. Saxe '84 said the state of the clubs has been agitating his graduate board for some time.

"The situation had to settle down," he said. "It's been building for three years."

Beyond the desire to reinstate the original way of life in the clubs, graduate members as well as undergraduates have grown increasingly worried about liability issues.

In 1997, MIT first-year Scott M. Krueger died from alcohol poisoning at the MIT chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity

After being charged with manslaughter, the fraternity disbanded.