Harvard’s Hasty Pudding to Allow Women to Join the Cast

America’s oldest college theatrical troupe, Harvard’s Hasty Pudding, announced yesterday it will allow women to join its cast for the first time in its 223-year existence. The group has faced repeated calls to make the change from students and faculty.

According to the Harvard Crimson, Pudding president Amira Weeks read a letter from Andrew Farkas, former president of the Pudding, to a crowd assembled in Farkas Hall.

“The Hasty Pudding welcomes women to audition and to give equal opportunity to play those roles based on the quality of their individual talents. While we have great respect for the art form as it’s been presented by the Pudding for over 170 years, the world is in a very different place. We are very proud to take this organization forward as a leader in women’s rights and gender equality.”

The announcement came at the start of the troupe’s annual celebratory Woman of the Year roast, which this year honored actor Mila Kunis.

Kunis, told reporters at a press conference that her decision to attend the celebrations was dependent on the Pudding’s choice to go co-ed. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” the Crimson reported, adding that the policy change was “something to me that was very important.”

Paul Rudd will be given the Pudding’s 2018 Man of the Year award next week.