The End of RAYD

The Radcliffe American Youth for Democracy finally lost its charter yesterday. For the past few months, Radcliffe student officials have been working with the Dean's Office on some proposal that would keep membership in a political club secret--to allay the justified fears of the RAYD. Last week, the Dean's Office approved a Student Council recommendation that membership lists be destroyed at the end of each year, with only the names of club executives placed on the permanent record.

That new ruling was not acceptable to the RAYD. The group again refused to hand in a roster of members and consequently was denied charter renewal. The RAYD feels that there will still be "persecution of girls who join left organizations," and that college authorities might give out names to government or private investigators. If the information that a girl once belonged to a group called "subversive" by the Justice Department were handed out freely, it would seriously prejudice her career, and many girls would stay away from such clubs.

The problem of keeping political membership secret is serious, but the answer produced by the Radcliffe student government seems to be sensible. The RAYD, however, is not satisfied that the Dean will act in good faith. The RAYD doesn't want the Dean even to look at the lists, because she would remember some of the names, and could divulge them in the future.

This overpowering suspicion is extremely questionable. It is just as reasonable to fear that the Dean will abscond with student funds, or violate any other official regulation. If the Dean had regarded the Student Council proposal as an infringement on her prerogatives, she certainly would never have accepted it in the first place. The fact that there has been a case where information regarding political affiliation was given out in the past has no present significance. There was no ruling then; there is one now, and the RAYD has no grounds for questioning the Dean's integrity.

Another point made by officers of the Youth for Democracy is that names of club executives should not go down in the permanent record. During the past few months, however, their position on this was hardly clear. They seemed perfectly willing, up until yesterday, to agree with the Student Council. The RAYD now feels that the Dean's Office may have executive lists, provided these lists are destroyed annually. This appears to be a reasonable suggestion; unfortunately the RAYD has made it a little too late.

The whole attitude of the Youth for Democracy has been unfortunate, to put it mildly. Its challenge of the good faith of the Radcliffe administration is neither justifiable nor in good taste. No one can believe that the RAYD has been forced out of existence by hostile authorities. The RAYD in effect chose to disband by rejecting a sensible solution to the problem of secret membership. Whatever bad faith is involved in the matter lies squarely on the Youth for Democracy, not on the rest of Radcliffe.