Radcliffe May Get Midnight Parietals

Radcliffe may extend its parietal hours until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights and eventually increase the total number of hours per week.

The Radcliffe College Council--the college's highest governing body--indicated to Radcliffe Government Association executives yesterday that it probably would not block a student attempt to change the Redbook rule prohibiting parietals after ten p.m.

Although the Council did not indicate its position onincreasing the total number of parietal hours, Mrs. Mary I. Bunting, President of Radcliffe, said last week that she would object only to extending Radcliffe parietal hours beyond the total number at Harvard. Right now Harvard has 36 hours to Radcliffe's 25.

Thursday Vote

At Thursday's meeting, RGA members will vote on a formal proposal to revise the current parietal set-up. But it is unlikely that RGA will ask for both an increase in the total number of hours and for midnight parietals, Julia Curry '69, secretary of RGA, indicated. "We don't want to ask for too much at once and have the whole thing blow up in our faces," she said.

Pressure for midnight parietals has come chiefly from students in off-campus houses who say that their living rooms are too small to accommodate all the couples who wish to use them on Friday and Saturday nights. Should RGA and the College Council approve the midnight parietal option. Miss Curry feels that the larger dorms would be less likely to take advantage of the extension than the off campus houses.

Private Suites

"Girls in the dorms are very inconvenienced if they cannot walk around the halls freely, while most off-campus residences are organized around private suites," she explained.

Also each Radcliffe dorm currently sets its own parietal hours, as long as the total does not exceed 25 per week. In dorms where all 25 hours are being used, midnight parietals would mean cutting hours at some other time. A two-thirds majority in each dorm will have to approve any change in the distribution of parietal hours for that dorm.

Nice Try

The last time RGA asked for an increase in the total number of parietal hours, two years ago, the proposal was squelched by acting College President Mrs. Helen H. Gilbert. However, at that time RGA was asking for 70 hours per week which was considered an "unreasonably radical" increase. Ethel Silverman '67, treasurer of RGA, said that this year's RGA will almost assuredly have better luck with its proposals, because "they know what they can hope to get away with."