Recouping Damages

While the authors who will undoubtedly chronicle the 1972 student strike greedily contemplated analogies between this spring and the 1970 Cambodia strike, few noticed the delivery of a $450,000 bill to Harvard which the City of Cambridge had outstanding from two years ago.

The bill, for $446,388.47, covers pensions for two firemen injured when they were trying to extinguish a fire that ravaged Lawrence Hall on the overpass. Lawrence Hall had formerly housed part of the School of Education, but, abandoned, it became the first Harvard strike center following the invasion of Cambodia.

The origin of the May 7 fire was never determined exactly, but at a cost of half a million dollars, chances are Harvard will not soon forget it.