RGA Polls 'Cliffies About Males in Library; Evening Dates May Be Kept on First Floor

The Radcliffe Government Association is now conducting a referendum among 'Cliffies on a proposal to limit the areas of the Radcliffe Library open to Harvard students. Results will be known by Thursday.

Begun last month as a petition from Briggs Hall, the proposal asks that male students not be allowed on the second floor of the library after six in the evening. Though the referendum concerns the entire second floor, the proposal may eventually be modified to apply only to half of it, since smoking is only allowed on this floor and most of the visiting males like to smoke.

At present, male students are allowed to study anywhere in the afternoon, but are asked to remain off the third floor after 6 p.m. Many 'Cliffies have complained that loud whispering and "other noises" between girls and their study-dates make it extremely difficult to concentrate in the library.

Because of such disturbances, the policy in the past was to reserve the second floor for girls in the evenings. But since the library's fire insurance does not allow smoking on other floors, several girls asked last year that the policy be changed, and the present compromise was instituted.

Student attitude toward the proposed change at the 'Cliffe varies according to whether or not the girl makes a practice of studying there with a date. "If you don't," said one girl, "it's really annoying. I don't think most girls like it." "There's really no place else to study with him," said another.

"Feel Like Hiding"

The only violent objections expressed were toward boys who study in the library without Radcliffe dates. "I feel like hiding behind a book," said one girl. "They're always looking around the room." "So what?" said another, when asked the same question. "They probably don't like Lamont all the time."

Miss Ruth K. Porritt, Radcliffe librarian, expressed no preferences about having boys in the library. "We want to do what pleases the girls," she said. "If you are a girl and a boy is in the room," she concluded sympathetically, "you can't relax and put your feet on the table."