300 Ask Housemasters For No Parietal Change

Over 300 House members have already signed a petition requesting no changes in parietal rules during football weekends. The petition, begun in Dunster and now circulating in all Houses, calls for the Masters to hold to the 11 p.m. deadline now in effect.

E. Bailey Frye '55, of Dunster House and chairman of the newly-formed Students' Parietal Rules Committee, expects to find strong student support for the petition and to have several hundred more signatures to present at the meeting of Housemasters on Wednesday.

Other Housemasters have generally declined to take a stand on the controversy until after Wednesday's meeting. Eliot Perkins, Master of Lowell House, made his position on the question clear, however, when he told Lowell janitors that the House would be closed to women guests at 8 p.m. on Saturdays.

Some Dissent

A little opposition to the petition has come from upperclassmen who feel that the 11:00 p.m. rule might cut down attendance at House dances.

House members first learned that parietal privileges might be curtailed when Ronald P. Ferry, Master of Winthrop, cut Saturday night hours to 8:00 p.m. during the football season.

Parietal rules were liberalized last December when Dean Leighton turned the problem over to the reorganized Administrative Board. The Board had been expanded to include the Senior Tutors of the seven Houses. This close tutor-student Council, who sponsored the late hours proposal as "making implementation of new rules easier."

Under the rules changes adopted at that time, each Housemaster may limit or extend the hours in his House. It is seen as doubtful, however, that some Masters will retain the 11:00 hours it others cut to 8:00 p.m. In the Wednesday meeting, the seven Masters will attempt to reach a decision for all Houses.