RGA Approves Midnight Parietals; Current 25 Hours Increased to 36

The Radcliffe Government Association voted yesterday to allow Radcliffe dormitories to extend weekend parietals to midnight. The RGA also voted to increase the total number of parietal hours from 25 to 36.

Under the new rules, dormitories have the option of extending Saturday parietals to midnight. The extension of Friday parietals will have to wait until the Faculty approves a similar proposal for Harvard, which the Masters accepted last week. Parietals on weekdays will go into effect immediately.

Susanne J. Wilson '67, president of RGA, said yesterday that the final consensus in RGA was that the increase in hours would be "quite reasonable." The additional 11 hours would accommodate male guests at the earlier meal times this year, she said. In addition, hours will not have to be rejuggled to provide for the midnight extensions.

The Radcliffe College Council voiced no objection earlier this month to parietal extensions beyond the present 10 p.m. limit. Mrs. Bunting, however, indicated that Radcliffe's parietal rules should not be more liberal than Harvard's.

National Conference

In another major decision, RGA appropriated $1700 to finance a regional National Student Association conference on "The Role of the Scholar in Foreign Policy."

Set for February 10 and 11, the conference represents "a new dimension in RGA activity," Mary I. Bunting, President of Radcliffe, said last week. This is the first time that Radcliffe has sponsored any kind of a regional conference.

The conference will consist of a series of speeches, seminars, and panel discussions. "We hope to achieve some sort of dialogue between the academic community and the Federal government," Mary B. Feltenstein '69, originator of the project, said yesterday.

New Perspective

Rejecting the idea that the Vietnamese war could become the focal point of the meeting, Feltenstein said that she hoped that a "new perspective on foreign policy" would emerge.

Invitations have been sent to a number of academic and government foreign policy experts.

Adam Yarmolinsky, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, Stanley H. Hoffmann, professor of Government at Harvard, Edwin O. Reischauer, University Professor and former ambassador to Japan, and Ernest R. May, professor of American History have all accepted. The State Department has expressed interest in the conference, but has not yet sent any formal acceptance.

Miss Feltenstein said that the conference would probably be held at Agassiz because Harvard classrooms would be unavailable. This limits the number of students who may participate to 400, she said. Since students from the other 28 schools in the NSA New England region will be invited this means only about 150 Harvard and Radcliffe students will be able to attend.