With a string of notices posted two weeks ago on the walls of classrooms, Houses, and other vital centers, the Veterans Book Office has warned everybody about May 1. That is the deadline, they say, for turning in book authorizations for the Spring term. If a veteran wishes to be reimbursed for any purchases, his blanks have to be in Weld Hall before April leaves the Yard.

Turning May 1 into a cut and dried deadline is the only way the Book Office will not be caught with their forms down. But although the date is well-publicized as far as students are concerned, the new word apparently hasn't reached all Departmental circles. The Book Office has received Reading Period authorizations from roughly only two-thirds of all middle-group courses. With less than two weeks remaining before their time is up, veterans with no list to go on are on the spot. And any lists that arrive in the next week will be useless if they include books that must be ordered.

Some departments will protest that they included reading period texts in assignment sheets handed out at the beginning of the term. But such advance information helps only the library user, not the book-buying veteran, for the Book Office will authorize nothing without a faculty signature. Unless all delinquent departments come through with their reading period requirements, the veteran will find May Day no time-for-dancing.