Yale Holds 6 For Painting Of Widener

Yale University has suspended six students caught painting "BEAT HARVARD" in blue letters three feet high on the columns of Widener Library.

Five of them were caught single-handed by Michael D. Zurawin '64, who spotted them sauntering down DeWolfe Street, paint and paint-brushes in hand, early Friday morning. According to the Yale Daily News. Zurawin shined a flashlight in their eyes and told them he was a policeman.

He then summoned the Harvard University police. "I was kind of glad they were arrested," he reportedly said, "until one of them started crying."

Yale is making the six students deposit $1000--a rough estimate of damage--toward paying for removing the paint. If the cost is higher, Yale will collect the rest from the offenders; if less, they will receive a refund. The students have also been told to go to Harvard this week and apologize to Dean Watson. The names of the students have not been disclosed.

A crew from Buildings and Grounds, according to department head Cecil A. Roberts, has tried, "all normal means" to remove the paint without success. "We spent all day Friday trying to get it off," Roberts said. The department is currently consulting Harvard chemical laboratories for advice. If nothing else works, the paint will be sand-blasted off.

The six students are not being charged with painting John Harvard's statue blue, an event that occurred the preceding Sunday night. In that case the paint was relatively easy to remove, and the damage to the statue was light.

Dean Watson reported that once the students were apprehended they were "very cooperative" with the Harvard police. He said that he had asked the University law officers to send a detailed report of the incident to Yale. It was on the basis of this report that Yale suspended the students.

According to Dean Watson, the only move Harvard makes in cases such as this is to forward the evidence concerning the incident to the other university involved.