Majority of Lowell House Requests Period of Daily Midnight Parietals

Seventy-five per cent of Lowell House students have signed a petition to set up an experimental two-month period next fall when parietals would be from 12 noon to 12 midnight every day and from 12 noon to 1 a.m. on Saturdays.

Out of 420 House members, 333 expressed opinions, and 307 of those voted affirmatively on the proposal. The petition calls for an "extensive evaluation of the system" by the Masters' Council, tutors, and students after the trial period.

The petition was drafted by Neal P. Katz '68, John D. Kennedy '68, and Andrew Zucker '67, and is not related to a questionnaire, presently being distributed in Lowell House, on the same subject. That questionnaire, drawn up by Joh nPalazzo '69, asks for student opinion on the elimination of parietals altogether. "Our petition is more in the direction of action," Katz explained. "We want to get something done."

A questionnaire similar to Palazzo's has been circulated in Adams House, and the results are being compiled. Fred Fox '68, who drafted the Adams' inquiry, said he wanted to gauge student opinion before spreading a petition.

Katz said that he hopes to get other Houses to draft petitions along the lines of his proposal. "The important thing is to have the statements uniform in each House. It won't do us much good if one House's petition asks for one thing and another asks for something else," he said.

The overwhelming response to the parietals petition -- 80 per cent expressed an opinion, while only 43 per cent answered a recent petition in Lowell on the draft -- has impressed Zeph Stewart, Master. "It shows that the proposal is something worth thinking about," he said.

Any change in parietal regulations must be approved by the Committee on the Houses, which is made up of the nine Masters and the Deans of the University. That committee holds its monthly meeting on May 17, at which time Stewart feels he "will be conscience-bound to bring up this matter."

Student Ombudsman

"Last year, in his request to live offcampus, a student gave as one of his reasons the parietal restrictions in his House," Katz said. But he added that the petition is just the first step in closing "the gap between what House members feel and what is actually done."

"What we really need is some kind of student ombudsman, whose sole job would be to keep the Masters and tutors in touch with student opinion," he explained. "There definitely should be someone actively seeking out student feeling on the important issues."