The Ruined Maid II

After the usual interminable, howlingly funny debates, RGA decided last week that, at least for the present, all Cliffies need sign-out rules.

No one is certain why. No one expects rules, even as they exist now, to keep Cliffies chaste. The Deans and RGA have denied that Cliffies need rules and curfews to help order their lives; most girls they say, would live "discreetly," keep reasonable hours, and continue to do their course work conscientiously under any system of sign-outs. Nor will rules keep girls safe. Cliffies are warned during Orientation Week that the fiends who haunt Garden Street and the Common will indiscriminately, attack any skirted figure on an English bike any time after dark, whether or not she's escorted, whether or not she's signed out.

Obviously sign-out rules will do nothing except keep the College Council, the alumnae, and every girl's mother happy. As long as Radcliffe can claim it has some kind of curfew rules--and not talk about their substance--no newspaper with prurient tastes is going to snoop around and find out just how permissive those rules are. Radcliffe's reputation for decorum, at least, will remain intact.

Mrs. Bunting said last week that the College Council would be "very much against" doing away with sign-out rules at the present time. Yet the Council is agreeable to the rules RGA suggested last week. Presumably the Council doesn't mind Cliffies staying out all night, but wants them back in their dorms by 8:15 a.m., in time to have a good breakfast before leaving for class. And the Council doesn't want their mothers to know.

Having no curfews may seem to the College Council to be tantamount to free sex, flaunting of the libido, and tramping on the flag. Yet in effect Radcliffe has no curfew now. And no one has offered and justification for retaining all the foolish sign-out boxes and secret envelopes to which Cliffies are subjected. Why doesn't the College just scrap the whole business?