In the dark dreary hours before dawn, sinister little men in midnight-blue prowl the streets, armed with silver shields and orange parking tickets. The midnight marauders have been working overtime in recent days as part of the University's drive against illegal student parking. The crackdown, unfortunately, seems to stem not so much from a desire to solve the parking problem as it does from the hope to appease the traditionally irate Cambridge Council.

The situation will not be eased by making Mr. Vellucci smile, but by having fewer cars, more space, or both. The University has traditionally attacked the car side of the problem--sending discouraging circulars to Freshman car owners and by enforcing Cambridge regulations which forbid overnight parking. But the University not only enforces the Cambridge regulations with zeal matching the Cambridge police department's; it also gives higher fines, probation for continued violations, and more tickets more often. This may discourage College car owners, but violates the idea that students should be treated equally with Cambridge residents. The University may well be correct that City fines are too low to be effective, but if Harvard is going to do a better job than the City Council, it might begin instead by enforcing its own overnight alternate-side parking. Continued higher fines and crackdowns may eventually cause students simply not to register their cars with the University, since only cars with the little red sticker rate the special treatment. The other means of having fewer student cars, prohibiting them, contradicts a long standing University principle and would seriously inconvenience commuters and students from distant states.

If the University cannot significantly cut back the number of student cars, it should at least make more room for them by urging the City Council to legalize overnight, alternate-side parking. This system would allow fire-trucks to pass and permit Cambridge to clean its streets when the mood strikes, and at the same time considerably ease the present situation. In the meantime, the University should stop taking it upon itself to enforce every night, regulations which the Cambridge police force ignores most of the year.

Alternate side parking is not, however, a long-run solution. The eventual answer must combine a Cambridge law for higher fines on illegal parking which would be enforced by the College and City, legal alternate-side parking, expansion of the business school lot, and at least some thought of building parking facilities on this side of the river.