Yale Students Win Increase In Parietals

Yale undergraduates have won an 82 per cent increase in weekly parietal hours.

Previously, women were allowed in rooms from 11 a.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays. The new policy, approved this weekend by the university corporation and already in effect, allows females to visit student rooms seven days a week. All students, including freshmen, are permitted weekday parietals from noon to 7 p.m. provided the student tells his college master or dean.

The immediate cause of the policy change was a petition, signed by 1500 students last October, which asked for more liberal visiting hours.

Students at Yale have already expressed general approval of the new rules and have commended the corporation for its willingness to consider requests from the student body. The Yale Daily News, in an editorial Monday, stated that "this trust and dialogue between students and administration, in marked contrast to the situation at Berkeley where there is size, distance, and rigidity of the powers that be, have resulted in a legitimate student movement in the University."

Yale students now have wider parietal privileges than their counterparts at Harvard. Yale upperclassmen and freshmen have 62 visiting hours a week, while Harvard upperclassmen have 36 hours. Harvard freshmen are allowed 30 parietal hours a week.

On weekends, Yalies do not have to sign in guests, and visits may last until 1:15 a.m. on evenings when an official school function, such as a dance, lasts until 1 a.m. It is also Yale policy to allow girls at all meals.

The history of Yale parietals is one of gradual extensions. In 1938, ladies were permitted in rooms from noon to 6 p.m., seven days a week. Hours were extended in 1954 until 11 p.m. on Saturday and until 7 p.m. on other days.

The "Susie Scandal" of 1961, which involved several upperclassmen and a 14-year old girl, resulted in the elimination of all weekday hours.