Pres. Bunting Backs Changes in Sign-Outs

President Bunting said yesterday that she is "very much interested" in an RGA proposal to allow Radcliffe juniors and seniors to sign out of dormitorise without indicating either their destination or time of return.

She told the CRIMSON: that further liberalization of the sign-out rules for undergraduates is a distinct possibility this year, and indicated that she would be in favor of such changes.

Sign-Out as Courtesy

Signing out to a specific destination and indicating a definite time of return should be purely optional, Mrs. Bunting said, but should be observed "as a courtesy to the girl at the bell desk and to friends who might call the dormitory."

Under the present Radcliffe rules, juniors and seniors must specify their destination and the time they will return, but do not have a specific curfew.

Several RGA representatives argued at the Ceder Hill Conference Feb. 5 that the absence of a curfew does away with the need to indicate a specific time of return, and claimed that girls who come in later than the time they have indicated should not be punished.

Although Mrs. Bunting agreed that the sign-out requirement could be eliminated, she insisted that the rules change be undertaken "only after careful consideration of the problems involved."

"Merely keeping the rules as they are and then permitting juniors and seniors to break them is not a satisfactory solution," she said.

"Encouraged" by RGA

Mrs. Bunting said that she is "greatly encouraged by the performance of RGA during the past year," because it shows that "Radcliffe students are seriously interested in participating in the development of the College."

"The key to RGA is not that student government by itself decides great things, but that students participate in vital College decisions," she said. Mrs. Bunting declared that RGA has created a "less authoritarian atmosphere than is possible at Harvard."

'Cliffe Not Avant-Garde

In evaluating the proposed changes in sign-out rules, Mrs. Bunting noted that "many women's colleges are actually more liberal than Radcliffe." She admitted that the changes might cause problems, but said that "if new rules don't work, they can be changed again."

One of the most significant by-products of last year's changes in the rules, according to Mrs. Bunting, is the awareness brought to many student leaders "of the carelessness and dishonesty of some girls" and the necessity for coping with their irresponsibility.