Long Hot Summer

Girls who live in the dorms at Harvard Summer School are subjected to regulations which would be considered archaic at Radcliffe.

The girls, who live both in Yard dorms and in several Houses, must be in by either midnight or 1 a.m., depending on the dorm. If they want to be out later, they must ask permission from the proctor and then, since the door is locked at the curfew time and the girls are not given keys, they must report to the central message station and ask a watchman to let them into their dorm.

The Summer School administration's rationale for this system has two major points. First, many of the girls are from other schools. They are unfamiliar with Cambridge and, in the words of one official, would be "overwhelmed with the freedom" of Radcliffe social rules. "They're not all responsible," another explains.

Second, Buildings and Grounds claims that it would be dangerous for girls to be letting themselves in at night when prowlers could be waiting to sneak through an open door.

But it certainly seems that the Summer School has a responsibility to provide an adequate number of night watchmen to protect the girls' safety; presumably this number is adequate at 12:59 when a girl opens the door herself, and should be sufficient two minutes later at 1:01 to give her the freedom of having her own key. If the number was inadequate before 1:00 it would be inadequate after.

And the in loco parentis philosophy of the first part of the administration's rationale--aside from its offensive condescension--is out of place at a time when the president of Radcliffe herself is suggesting the possible elimination of all sign-outs. Girls who are under 18 live in separate dorms and the school does have a certain responsibility for their supervision. But for the college-age girls who come from other colleges--and who, after all, are subjected to at least a potentially selective admission process--the rules are unnecessary and hypocritical. For the few Cliffies who live in the dorms, they are even more burdensome.

The Summer School administrators have not yet reached a final decision on the social rules for this summer. Hopefully they will reconsider the past rules and substitute the Radcliffe system of estimated sign outs and a key to the dormitory for each girl.