HUC to Begin Discussion On Extension of Parietals

Agitation for the extension of parietals has begun again.

The Harvard Undergraduate Council will begin its first formal discussion of parietals on Monday. Already a petition has been posted in Dunster House requesting the lengthening of hours on Wednesday and Friday.

Gregory B. Craig '67, chairman of the HUC, said last night that he expects the committee to have approved a proposal for changes in parietal hours within a few days. He explained that informal discussion has been going on for a while, but no proposal has been outlined. The revisions, he said, would probably affect the whole week, not just weekends.

The petition in Dunster, which was hung on the dining hall door, was signed by 122 members of the House. James D. Bellanca '67, who, together with Frederick J. Gruber '67, initiated the petition, said yesterday that they posted the petition because they were tired of the "baby-sitting-like parietal hours."

The petition was put up last Monday and removed on Tuesday when it was filled with signatures. It probably would have been signed by more members of the House, Bellanca said, if it was left on the door longer.

Bellanca has not yet decided what to do with the petition. He may either give it to the HUC or go back to Dunster House for more signatures and try to start petitions at other Houses.

The last major airing of parietal rules was in the Fall of 1963. At that time Dean Watson expressed concern over reported abuses of the privilege, and suggested that the hours would be cut back if there were any further incidents. Later Dean Monro also voiced concern over abuses but said that he did not plan any proposal to change the regulations.

But soon the whole discussion was turned into a nation-wide scandal. A Boston newspaper, the Record-American, more than a month after Dean Watson's statement, announced in a front-page banner headline: "Harvard Bares Wild Parties." Of course Harvard had bared nothing, the Record-American had chosen some select passages from Dean Monro's letter to the CRIMSON in which he expressed his position on the parietals question. But after all this controversy, there were no changes in parietal hours.

The only change in parietals since 1963 came last year when hours on the nights of home football games were extended from 8:30 until midnight.