New Center to Coordinate Students Going to Democratic Convention

A group of Boston-area students--ranging ideologically from moderate McCarthyites to Resistance people--is coordinating a mass exodus to Chicago from an office in Harvard's Memorial Hall.

There are about 25 students now working to arrange transportation and lodging for people who want to go to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, according to a spokesman for the group, Vicki Erenstein, a Wellesley junior.

Miss Erenstein said the group is calling itself the Boston Movement Center, and it plans to set up a Boston center in Chicago from which activities for Boston people there can be coordinated. She said the Center has already secured a Methodist church on North Armitage St. in Chicago for the Boston demonstrators.

The Boston Movement Center in Chicago will have a 24-hour-a-day doctor on hand, Miss Erenstein said, and will be able to coordinate legal aid. It will plan certain demonstrations, such as a support demonstration for striking telephone workers in Chicago.

The center is chartering round trip flights to Chicago, and round trip buses as well. Miss Erenstein said she has no idea at this time how many people will sign up, although she emphasized that many people will be going to Chicago without contacting this office. The center is distributing leaflets throughout the Boston area.

It is not clear how many demonstrators of various stripe will appear in Chicago during convention week. The National Mobilization Committee estimates it will attract 100,000. Allard Lowenstein said he expects the Coalition for an Open Convention to attract 150,000. Many small coordinating centers are being set up in Chicago, but most are along ideological rather than geographical lines.

Miss Erenstein said she does not expect the divergent points of view among Boston people traveling to Chicago to cause problems. "Most of us agree that we are disenfranchised," she said. "I think the difference between Resistance people and the McCarthy supporters won't be that great if and when Humphrey is nominated."

Sen. McCarthy said earlier this week that he did not wish his supporters to come to Chicago unless they had specific campaign jobs. Miss Erenstein said this plea is not stopping many McCarthy supporters, and she said she has heard McCarthy staff workers say privately they would like big crowds.