Haverford Board to Decide Fate Of Current No-Parietal System

HAVERFORD, Pa., Feb. 16--Haverford College's Board of Managers [trustees] will decide March 15 whether the College's policy of placing no definite restrictions on parietals will continue in its present form.

The present policy was instituted on a one-year trial basis last March. John R. Coleman, President of the all-male College, said in an interview yesterday that he was "impressed by how well it seems to work."

The Board of Managers will base its decision primarily upon Coleman's recommendations, which he will submit by March 13. Coleman said, however, that he was not sure what he would suggest.

The Board has also had several meetings with the Students' Council, which deals with problems produced by the system. Joel D. Cook, president of the Council, said that he had "hardly even considered" the possibility that the Board might reject the no-regulations honor system.

"Impossible"

To return to the situation as it was before last March would be "impossible," James W. Lyons, Dean of Students, said yesterday. Before the new policy was passed provisionally by the Board, Haverford operated on a social honor system which required girls to leave dormitories by 2 a.m. on weekdays and 6:30 a.m. on weekends. Students were expected to keep the rules by themselves. Now, Coleman explained, the students must make their own rules, as well as keep them.

"The honor system is a process, not a set of regulations," Coleman said. "A man must look hard at himself and weight his actions and attitudes against others. The Quaker tradition (of trust and faith in people) is very strong here; the emphasis is on individual conscience. The essential question to be decided by the Board is: To what extent do we trust our students?"

First Non-Quaker

Coleman, who came to the College this September is the first non-Quaker President the College has had in its 134-year history.

The College also has an academic honor system which dates back several generations. "Almost all the Managers are alumni and know the academic system, and, thus, the assumption is, that they will be prepared to give the fairest hearing possible to its extension to social questions," Coleman said.