KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES

The recent repeal of prohibition in Tigertown and the institution of unlimited cuts at Yale is one wave of the future which it is to be hoped will roll through Harvard and sweep away the antiquated House parietal restrictions. Symptomatic of a tendency to treat undergraduates more like adult citizens, the move also has the virtue of abolishing an impossible situation at least in the case of the liquor ban, which was unenforceable and universally winked at. The parallel with Harvard's chaperone and permission requirements for women guests is obvious.

One delightful feature of life in Cambridge is that things run along pretty smoothly without the petty rules on radios, dress, ownership of automobiles, and other needless red tape which plagues the student at most prep schools and at too many colleges. A citizen in the Harvard community is regarded as such. Yet, though the liquor and cut liberalizations were put through here long ago, the parietal rules still lag behind those of Yale and Princeton. At present a Student Council committee is investigating the logic which distinguishes parietal discipline from supervision over the student's other private affairs at college.

Unfavorable outside publicity is often advanced as an argument against any relaxing of present restrictions, but the thought of Mrs. Grundy didn't deter the reformers at Yale and Princeton. If the Council report confirms the current doubts as to the utility of the specific parietal rules under attack, the time for action is now, for change is in the air.