Jr. Parents Discuss 'Cliffe Identity

Whatever identity Radcliffe has should not be totally lost in a merger, a South House panel on "Radcliffe: Identity Crisis?" concluded yesterday.

This discussion and similar ones in East House and North House were part of Radcliffe Junior Parents' Weekend.

"There are many of us who look forward to a merger because of the way Radcliffe might loosen up Harvard. It is important for Radcliffe to decided what it would be unwilling to give up," South House panel member James E. Thomas, senior advisor to Harvard freshmen, said.

Two hundred fifty-eight parents, representing almost half of Radcliffe juniors, attended the Weekend. In addition to the Saturday afternoon discussion, parents attended classes, met with Mary I. Bunting, president of Radcliffe, and heard Nathan Glazer, visiting professor of Education and Social Structure, Paul A. Freund Carl M. Loeb University professor, and Jerome S. Bruner, Professor of Psychology, speak after House dinners on Friday night.

Loners

There was some sentiment against coeducational living in open discussion periods during the panels. "I don't want Harvard undergraduates moving in. I like being able to be alone." Alexandra R. Murphy '70 said. "Girls here are more likely to be loners than are boys down there."

Genevieve Austin, dean of residence at Radcliffe, said during the South Houses panel that she sees coeducational living as simply another housing alternative. Ann V. Bastian '70, a member of the East House panel, said "The richness of Harvard is in its myriad options. This is just another way of extending the options."

Girls in all three Houses suggested that both the stereotype of Cliffe aggressiveness and the foundation for this image might disappear if girls had a more secure place in the Harvard social community.

Richard A. Snelling '48, North House panel member, said, "When I was here men were aggressive enough to come up to Radcliffe to meet the girls. What is needed for Harvard and Radcliffe is a change of attitude, not of physical arrangements."