Committee Drops Plans To Let Girls In Lamont

The Library Committee postponed all consideration of proposals to allow Radcliffe students into Lamont Library until at least late next year.

According to Douglas W. Bryant, University Librarian, the committee decided at its meeting on Feb. 8 to make no changes for the present in the rules governing access to Lamont.

The committee also agreed that any further consideration of proposals would be postponed until the effects of the new Hilles Library at Radcliffe and the new Radcliffe study center in Lehman Hall could be appraised, Bryant said.

The recent poll of Harvard students by the HUC, which received a 62 per cent negative response to the idea, was taken into consideration by the committee, he added.

As a result, Cliffies-in-Lamont is just about a dead issue. "I don't think anyone is actively pursuing this idea any more, in view of the poll and in view of the recent discussions," Richard DeGennaro, Assistant University Librarian and a member of the Library Committee said yesterday.

Petition

First word of the decision came in a letter from President Pusey to Michael D. Beckman '67. The letter was in response to a petition circulated by Beckman protesting Cliffies in Lamont. The petition, containing Winthrop House signatures, was mailed to Pusey Feb. 1.

"We are glad we accomplished our objective," Beckman said last night, although he admitted that his petition was probably not the deciding factor.

Radcliffe Librarians

Radcliffe librarians were surprised when they heard that girls would continue to be barred from Lamont, but most of them were reluctant to give their opinions on the decision.

"I would like to see the girls in Lamont, but I have no influence," Ruth K. Porritt, head librarian at Radcliffe said last night. "This is Harvard's decision. The Library Committee had a perfect right to do whatever they chose to do," she added.