Smoker Faces Council Checks on 'Rowdiness'

The Freshman Smoker, traditionally a sex and beer brawl, will be toned down this year.

Serious fights and explosions in the Yard and at Radcliffe this spring and numerous incidents in previous years caused the proposed restrictions, the Student Council and Union Committee announced last night.

"We realize the dangers of the Smoker to the University," Richard S. Dolins '55, Council advisor to the Smoker Committee, said last night. "We want to moderate them and de-emphasize the nude women and drunkenness."

"The purpose of the Smoker is to provide the freshmen with a high level of entertainment," said Clifford L. Alexander '55, president of the Council. "Noise and rowdiness are not the criteria for enjoyment. The conduct of each class has a distinct effect on the future of the Smoker as an institution."

Four Proposals

Dolins has made four proposals to the Union Committee for regulation of the Smoker group, which will be elected next week.

First, he recommended that the Smoker begin later in the evening than it did last year. He would advance the starting time from 7 p.m. to 8:30, which will let the freshmen out later and provide less inducement to post-Smoker activities.

Dolins also suggested that "the Union Committee hold an orientation meeting of all Smoker Committee candidates and explain to them that the affair will have to be toned down."

Third, "in order to prevent other local students from wheedling their way in, all freshmen should be required to show their bursar's cards at the door to gain admittance to the Smoker," Dolins said. "Presumably these outsiders cause a great deal of the trouble," he continued.

Finally, Dolins is seeking "some way to facilitate the freshman's meeting his classmates. This is the designed purpose of the Smoker which is never fulfilled."

"We want to give the Smoker a respectable air," said Morom Brachman '58, president of the Union Committee. "We don't want to make it a tea party, but we must bring it out of disrepute."

"Vernon L. Patrick, secretary of the Union, and F. Skiddy von Stade, Dean of Freshmen, will not use their power or authority to interfere with the Smoker," Dolins continued, "but they approve of our advisory capacity."