COERCED CONFORMITY

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Saturday evening, hundreds of gay Harvard men trooped off to the I.A.B. for the Big Dance. But hundreds of other Harvard men did not join the march. I think we may agree that it was completely a matter of personal choice. However, it seems as though the House Masters did not. The parietal rules for Saturday evening were limited to eight o'clock, so that any House resident who wished to entertain women guests in his room, as usually permitted on other Saturday evening, was prevented from doing so.

This, gentlemen, was plainly and simply coercion. It was interference on the part of College authorities in a matter which was absolutely student choice and by no stretch of one's imagination did it call for such action. If the Harvard man did not wish to attend the Big Dance, that was his business and it should have remained such. Most definitely, he should not have been penalized for non-conformance.

It is too late to do anything about the situation for that evening. However, I hope that this will not be repeated again, whether it be a football weekend, or the next time a fraction of Harvard men get dressed up for a Big Dance. Ira Rabkin '55