Sic Transi, Already

In declining the Harvard Undergraduate Council's rather harmless request for a meeting last week, the Committee on Houses has predictably stirred up exactly the sort of drawn-out discussion it wished to avoid. Dean Ford, acting as spokesman for the Committee, said its members were sick of the parictals issue; so, without a doubt, is every other member of this community.

The dreariness of the issue is matched only by its longevity. We are less than four weeks away from the fourth anniversary of the Great Harvard Sex Scandal, sparked by the Boston papers' eager if incredulous sifting of the 1963 parietals debate. Which turned into the 1964 parietals debate. Which dragged on through 1965 and so on.

Most students are not content with the present hours; they have been saying so; and they'll continue to say so until the hours are extended. The committee on Houses should reconsider its needlessly tactless refusal to review the present setup, and should follow the HUC's proposal for midnight hours.

Prompt action could easily forestal a sensational student response to the Committee's rebuff--the kind of well-publicized demonstration, already being proposed, that the Record American has been waiting four years to cover. Better still, it could consign future discussion of parietals to the inaudibility the issue so richly deserves.