ROTC Debate Makes SDS Council Elections

Harvard-Radcliffe SDS members discussed treatment of participants in the Paine Hall sit-in and the general movement to abolish ROTC on campus at a meeting in Burr B last night.

The H-R SDS Anti-War Committee presented a petition and policy statement, both demanding complete amnesty for the demonstrators and abolition of ROTC.

The statement blamed the Administration for having "disrupted the Faculty's business of discussing ROTC" and refused to consider the alternative of disaccreditation, saying that "disaccreditation, far from being a step toward the abolition of ROTC, actually serves to re-inforce its position at Harvard."

SDS hopes to get 1000 signatures on the petition and to present it as a full-page ad in the CRIMSON on January 7, before any decision concerning disciplinary action has been made.

Against 'Leniency'

Peter J. Bilazarian '69 said that members should discourage people from signing the HUC petition asking for leniency for demonstrators, because this might legitimize probation as a reasonable punishment.

Geoffrey P. Hellman, GSAS, suggested that Administration policy might be to build up a fear of major punishment and then "take a lot of wind out of our action" by being more lenient. "The overall effect would be at least as bad in terms of intimidation," he said.

Discussion of the Anti-War Committee statement centered around whether SDS was the official voice of all the Paine Hall demonstrators. Several of those who helped draft the statement were not members of H-R SDS. The members present decided that in the future the writers of all statements would sign their names, together with the organization to which they belonged.

Names

In other action eleven SDS members were elected as delegates and alternates to both the SDS National Convention and National Council. They are: Elizabeth M. Harvaey '71, Alan Gilbert IG, Eugene H. Jenness '69, Pat Fogarty '69, Jonathan M. Harris '68, James T. Kilbreth III '69, Michael Kazin '70, Arthur J. Small '69, Steven Raudenbush '68, John C. Berg, and Mark Y. Liberman '69.

Raudenbush and Berg are also members of the Progressive Labor Party (PL). The relationship of PL to Harvard SDS was discussed at last night's meeting, amid expectations that the national convention to be held at the end of the month would be marked by a recurrence of a chronic power struggle between pro and anti-PL factions.