Extra-Curricular Rules Meet Growing Protests

Protest mounted yesterday against the newly proposed regulations relating to extra-curricular activities at the second of a series of hearings on rules before the Student Council.

Representatives from 12 groups testified yesterday, bringing the total of groups which have so far objected to the rules to 17. A third hearing will be held from 2:30 to 5 p.m. in Phillips Brooks House this afternoon.

After the hearing, George J. Feeney '50, President of the Yearbook, announced on behalf of several other organizations that they have invited the presidents of all undergraduate groups to a meeting in Holyoke 50 at 8 p.m. tomorrow night in order to discuss complaints against the rules. Feeney said last night that of 22 groups already contacted, all will attend the meeting.

William D. Mulholland, Jr. '50, who is conducting the hearings on the regulations for the Student Council, last night admitted that he had no "desire to be put in the position of defending the rules." The regulations currently up for discussion are not a product of the whole Student Council, but were composed by the Dean's Office and a special sub-committee of the Council extra-curricular activities committee.

Several Council members have already said unofficially that they do not intend to support the rules when they come before the council for review.

Organizations represented at yesterday's hearing complained chiefly about the "red tape and bureaucracy" strict application of the rules would involved. They also complained that the the rules indicated a deplorable doubt on the part of the Dean's Office that the College groups are able to handle their own affairs.

Claims Student Intelligence Hit

Francis L. Church '50, president of the Free Enterprises Society, suggested the rules were so restrictive that they "seem to be a denial of intelligence of all Harvard students." Delegates from other groups agreed that the rules could result in a regrettable departure from the traditional freedom allowed College groups.

Protests against the "bureaucratic" forms and reports required of the groups under the rules were even more vehement. Sanford J. Langa '51, representing the Young Republicans and the Republican Open Forum, Claimed the rules were too complicated to be practical. "It gets to the point," he said, "where an officer of a club can't go to bed without filing Form A."

Langa reiterated an objection made at Thursday's hearing by the John Reed Club and the Young Progressives against a clause in the rules which requires all College groups to file complete memberships lists with the Dean's Office.

The two leftist roups objected to the provision because they feared such lists could be used unfavorably against their members; the HYRC termed the rule an unnecessary clerical burden.

Many of those present at the hearing said they favored a highly general, two or three page set of rules which the Dean's Office could use as guilding principles, rather than the detailed 33-page set now up for approval.

The following groups appeared at yesterday's hearing: Ivy Films, WHRB, Catholic Club, HYRC, the Advocate, Glee Club, Yearbook Publications, Inc., German Club, Chemical Society, Debate Council, Students for Industrial Democracy, Republican Open Forum, and Free Enterprise Society.