Assassin Hypocrisy Is Unfair to First-Years

We take this opportunity to call attention to a small hypocrisy in the College's administrative policies In the fall, the "Assassin" game organized for the Yard was prohibited by officials in the Freshman Dean's Office. Quincy House has just started a game without any interference from the administration.

"Assassin," unlike paint-ball and orienteering is not a game in which players are commandos in an open field it is a game founded on stealth in which players have several days to "kill" one specific target person.

Fears of first-years running through the Yard and wreaking havoc on tourists are completely unfounded. Most of the action takes place inside dormitories; dining areas and classrooms are generally off limits. Furthermore, Harvard University should be treated as a place where undergraduates spend three or four years of their lives before it is treated as a tourist attraction.

The University's policy on "Assassin" type games has been inconsistent. Why should first-year be subject to a different code of conduct in such a trivial matter? Arguments that the College's image is tarnished by gun-toting first-years are absurd. The weapon of choice in the fall was a spoon, not even a fake firearm.

Games like Assassin do help people to meet each other and provide harmless diversion. The University cannot stop students from buying toy guns.

How much greater a step is it to prohibit students from using them on their friends?

Opposition on the basis of the monetary prizes offered by the organizers of the games is also ridiculous. The Freshman Dean's Office would also have to quell all the betting pools for NCAA Basketball's pool and foosball tables, in order to fight more charges of hypocrisy.

The double standard must end. The University should stop interfering with the part of students 'lives that concerns it least: their leisure time.