Overseers' Committee Will Probe Parietals

The Overseers' Committee to Visit Harvard College will conduct a one-day study of parietals next month and then may recommend changes in regulations.

Dean Monro last night called the study "a perfectly straightforward visit on a matter of concern" to the Board of Overseers. "Whenever there is a big public interest in some aspect of Harvard the committee will take a look at it, he explained.

Twelve to 15 undergraduates, including Radcliffe girls, have been invited to meet with the committee Dec. 7. The committee will also consult with the deans and other Faculty members and dine with the Masters.

On the basis of the information it gathers, it will report back to the Board of Overseers probably preparing its report on the same day as the interviews. Like the report on the Loeb Drama Center that the committee wrote last Spring, the report on parietals will probably not be made public.

Although the Dean's Office announced last Fall that it was giving "serious thought" to reducing the number of hours during which men could entertain women in dormitory rooms, no changes have been instituted. After studying infractions of the rules, the Deans apparently decided that careful enforcement, rather than a cutback in parietals, was the way to avoid any possible scandals.

Two-Day Swing

In preparing its two reports a year, the Visiting Committee follows a well-established routine. Its members come to Cambridge, spend at most two days speaking to officers and students of the College, and then return to their homes.

The Harvard students who will discuss parietals with the committee are being chosen by the Allston Burr Senior Tutors. In the committee's experience, "you can get a pretty good representation of undergraduate opinion" from a dozen students, according to Monro.

The chairman of the Visiting Committee is Albert L. Nickerson '33. Among the 14 other members are William G. Saltonstall'28, former headmaster of Phillips Academy, Exeter, Wilbur J. Bender '27, former Dean of the College, and Julius A. Stratton, president of M.I.T.