There’s a conflict brewing at the organization for high IQ individuals over a plan to potentially bar membership to anyone with a criminal conviction.
Mensa is a club for allegedly smart people, and the only requirement for entrance has been scoring in the top 2 percent of the population on an IQ test. The organization has long been humorously mocked as a club that gives self-centered smart people bragging rights.
The debate is raging over whether people like Jimmy Savile should be admitted to the club. Savile, a famous DJ who died in 2011. He was known for wearing flashy track suits and “bling” while he chomped on his trademark cigar. Savile was a mainstay at the BBC, and after his death, he was discovered to have been a serial child molester and abuser. The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service said he may have assaulted up to 500 children.
There aren’t any allegations that Savile abused anyone during any Mensa events, and there is no evidence that the organization was aware of his conduct during his lifetime.
But the British board of the organization–it was founded in the UK in 1946–has recently floated the idea of barring membership to people convicted of dire crimes, the kind that would harm a membership organization’s reputation. But some members are sticklers for the old rules, pointing out that Mensa’s only requirement was a top score on an IQ test.
Mensa will be having its annual membership meeting in October, and British papers got a hold of documents disclosing plans to introduce a new code of conduct. The new rule, if passed, will allow the organization to deny membership for “inappropriate conduct,” and would also allow the board to expel current members accused of the same.
An earlier version of the proposed rule would have excluded people convicted of crimes such as terrorism, rape, or murder.
Mensa’s board said the rule change was necessary to protect the safety of members as well as to safeguard the reputation of the organization. A spokesman pointed out that the changes are in line with what are considered uncontroversial “best practices” in professional organizations.
