But the students were not disposed to accept the new rule without a fight. Almost as soon as it appeared in the fall of 1936, the CRIMSON charged that "the University has relapsed a long way toward the bigoted puritanism which it has been trying to disown for many years."

Within two days, petitions had gone up in all the Houses, calling for a return to the old rules, and the CRIMSON returned to the attack with another editorial, urging that "the bawling brat must be thrown into the lap of (President Conant) immediately after his return from England." Mr. Conant was abroad recovering from the rigors of the tercentenary.

1266 to 49

On October 29, the Student Council passed a resolution condenming the new rule but made no specific recommendations for revisions. This was followed by CRIMSON poll a month later, in which undergraduates expressed their disapproval of the two-woman rule by, a count of 1266 to 49, and called for a return to the previous system.

A proposal to switch to the "Oxford card system" was voted down in the same poll by 692 votes to 412. This system provides simply for checking in and checking out a women guest before and after a visit, but the students polled presumably felt that it meant just one more barrier in addition to the permission required from the master.

On December 7, the Dean's Office announced that the two-woman rule had been repealed, effective the next January 4. It was abolished because "the students felt that such a rule was very inconvenient, and that it did not accomplish the purpose intended," read the official statement from University Hall. The guest book was retained in the revised plans, and so was requirement of master's permission. For the next five years, all was quiet, relatively, on the parietal front.

Then, on February 21, 1941, the Student Council approved a report, prepared by-Eugene D. Keithy '42, which called for simplification of the parietal rules and substitution of the "Oxford card rule" for the chaperone and permission requirements. The committee that drafted the report pointed out that this system was already in effect at Yale, Princeton, Amherst, and Williams, and worked well at those colleges.

In asking abolition of the advance permission and chaperone requirements, the committee claimed that they former was unnecessary since permission was always granted, and the latter was not enforced in practice and could not be enforced under any system. Both, it felt, were contrary to the "general tendency at Harvard to treat undergraduates as adults."

Five-Month Lull

There was nothing more heard about the report for almost five months. Aside from the CRIMSON editorial in support of the new system, which appeared the same day as the report and called it "in line with the reasonable theory that Harvard men are adults," there was no organized student support.

Early in June, in the only important modification of parietal rules that has taken place at Harvard since the advent of the Houses, the Housemasters approved the "Oxford card system" to go into effect for the fall of 1941. The change was to affect only the Houses; the Yard and outside dormitories were to stay as they were, and as they still are. The Oxford system is still the rule in the Houses.

There was another lapse of five years, during which a war was fought, and the College converted and deconverted. In the fall of 1946, both the Dean's Office and the council decided that something ought to be done about parietal rules.

The Dean's Office was particularly disturbed by complaints coming in from girls' colleges and from girls' parents that the parietal rules were being flagrantly violated. The council felt, however, that the fault lay mainly in the great variation between Houses which encouraged violators in the less liberal ones.

It sent a letter to the Dean, urging that "present parietal rules, properly enforced, should stand," and stating that "no modification of rules, short of complete banning of women, would prevent occasional unfortunate incidents."

Within two days the Housematters announced that they had taken steps to standardize guest privileges "as far as practicable," considering the physical condition of the Houses, and the issue died a quiet death.