Paddling of freshmen by Brown fraternities was abolished by action of the Interfraternity Governing Board last month, a move which, although not by unanimous vote, is binding on all chapters on the Hill. President Wriston called it “the natural course of events.” It had been on the program of nearly every national fraternity in the last ten years, he said, adding that he thought “boys should treat each other like men.”

Many Brown fraternities had given up the practice long ago, and last year the Brown Daily Herald listed abolition of this “Rah-Rah barbarism of half a century ago” as Objective Number Two in its “Platform for Brown.” A front-page editorial after “Hell-Week” cited the disproval of the Division of University Health, a few injured Freshmen, and several broken pledges as the result of pre-initiation “physical violence.” “A few houses only are guilty of these absurdities,” it said.