21 Grad Students Release Joint Stand on Punishment

Twenty-one graduate students who turned in their bursar's cards at the Paine Hall demonstration have written a letter to J. Petersen Elder, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, declining to tell him whether they heard Dean Glimp's 2:35 p.m. warning, and whether they remained in the hall after the warning.

The joint letter, which will be presented to Elder today, is a reply to individual letters sent by Elder to graduate students asking them to clarify their actions of Dec. 12, so that he might transmit this information to the Administrative Board.

An unknown number of the 21 signers of the joint letter did not receive such a letter from Elder, for GSAS officials had decided that, although they turned in their cards, they had not been present around 2:30 and were attempting to incriminate themselves. These students immediately had their cards returned to them in December. Elder said last night their names would not be brought up at the Ad Board meeting, even though they signed this letter.

This was the second time the students had refused to be singled out for questioning by the administration over their Paine Hall conduct. In the days following the anti-ROTC sit-in, Elder scheduled individual appointments with the students whose cards had been accepted, but they insisted on a joint meeting. Elder met with them on Dec. 17.

He said last night that each of them at that time declined to answer the two questions about Dean Glimp's 2:35 p.m. warning to those sitting in. He said he wrote the letter to give them "a fair chance to explain because the atmosphere at that meeting was confused."

Carl D. Offner, a spokesman for the graduate students, last night accused Eld- er of using the individual letters as "another tactic to try to split us up. The administration wants to come down hard on a few and intimidate the rest."

The Ad Board will consider individual protestors' cases, both GSAS and College, this week, and the Faculty will meet Jan. 14 to discuss punishment and rules of attendance at Faculty meetings. The Paine Hall sit-in was an attempt by students to sit through a Faculty meeting, which is prohibited by Faculty rules