Nudes in B.U. News Cause Controversy

Last week's issue of the Boston University News, which featured photographs of people having intercourse and questioned the University's parietal policies, has excited considerable controversy and may cause the newspaper to lose its recently-acquired independence.

The front page was devoted to a picture of a man and a woman, apparently having intercourse standing up. "Only a naive person would assume they are just standing there," a News staff member said yesterday.

Four other similar photographs, with B.U. married students as subjects, articles on parietals and contraception, and a cartoon occupied much of the 24-page issue.

"In the view of many members of the Boston University community, the Nov. 20 issue of the News exceeds the limits of propriety and good taste," Staton R. Curtis, Dean of Students at B.U., said yesterday. The administration is setting up a committee of faculty, students, and administration to decide what action might be taken.

Curtis, though not specifying what was likely to be done, said that he did not expect the News to become part of the University again. A major intent of the committee will be to reevaluate the newspaper's purpose.

B.U. students are allowed to have girls in their rooms five days each month, from 1 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

"It was cool that they did it, but they went a little too far," one B.U. student said yesterday. He felt that the most questionable feature was the cartoon: "An Essay on Eating a Banana In Public," which employed the banana as a phallic symbol. "All the jocks checked out the issue to find out who all the nude stude girls were," he added.

Another student said, "Last week's issue was just something to laugh at. The articles were garbage, even if it was in good taste." One female student publicly burned six copies.

News assistant news editor Aanu Mungo defended the pictures as "tender," and said that the News does not expect much administrative action. Mungo claimed that most student reaction has been favorable, and added that the next issue would offer comment on the University's statement.

The B.U. News has earned publicity in the past for urging the impeachment of President Johnson and the abolition of ROTC. Credit for ROTC courses at B.U. has now been removed.