But administrators and police rarely if ever take action against the clubs' initiations. College officials and Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) officers say that, regardless of their feelings about final clubs, it is difficult--and undesirable--to take steps against them.

"If I were to ban a brief, spontaneous gathering of final club members, then I might also ban any random, spontaneous gathering of students I see on campus," wrote David P. Illingworth '71, associate dean of the College, in an e-mail message. "Such regulatory behavior on my part would be ridiculous and outrageous."

Riley says that, practically speaking, police do not regulate students' behavior unless it creates a disturbance.

"People's dress isn't an issue for the police," Riley says.

Moreover, most initiations visible to the public eye are harmless, officials say.

"The stories I've heard this fall are not about hazing, rather about silly, sometimes annoying behavior," Illingworth says. "If I hear that a particular final club is making trouble or meeting on campus, I will call the Graduate Board president and complain. Obviously, however, I can't complain unless I know which club it is, and complaints I get are usually quite vague.

"While I find some of these behaviors silly, it would be difficult, not to say impossible, to enforce a ban on foolish or silly acts in public, unless they violate a rule in the handbook or the laws of the Commonwealth."