Harvard Will Not Suspend Blacks for OBU Protests

None of the black students the University has disciplined for two December building occupations will have to leave the College, but nine have been placed on "suspended suspension" and 20 others have received "warnings."

The Committee on Rights and Responsibilities-the Faculty's disciplinary agent-announced the decisions yesterday in 37 of the 46 cases stemming from Dec. 5 and Dec. 11 occupations of University Hall.

The remaining cases-three involving black students, six involving whites charged with harassing Dean May-will be decided soon, the Committee said.

In the decisions announced yesterday, the Committee divided the cases into several groups, depending on each student's past disciplinary records and degree of involvement in the demonstrations.

Suspended Suspensions

In the nine most serious cases, the Committee decided that the students should be "required to withdraw" for one to three terms-but it suspended the sentences.

That means that the students will actually have to withdraw if, in the Committee's words, they are involved in "any further misconduct deemed sufficiently serious to warrant lifting the suspensions."

Students who have been required to withdraw may return to the College only with the approval of the Committee.

In a 15-page statement explaining the decisions, the Committee said that both occupations were "detrimental to the function of the University and its continued existence as a community."

It added that the December 11 occupation-in which students left the building only after the University had temporarily suspended them and obtained a court injunction against the demonstration-was a more serious offense than the first.

But the Committee said that no individual students were charged with "use of force against individuals or damage to property"-or anything more serious than participation in the occupations.

The lack of individual charges-together with the students' past disciplinary records-meant that the decisions"should reflect the University's concern for understanding, good faith, and progress on the crucial issues at stake," the statement said.

The 37 cases fall into five categories:

eight students were acquitted because of insufficient evidence against them. Dean May-who brought charges against all the students-asked that charges be dropped in two cases, and in six others the Committee decided to dismiss the case;

twenty students who were identified at only one of the two demonstrations and who had no previous disciplinary record here "placed on warning" for three terms. The warning means that "any further misconduct will lead to more severe disciplinary action";

four students-who were either at both demonstrations or who stayed at the Dec. 11 demonstration after May ordered them temporarily suspended-were required to withdraw for one term, with the sentence suspended;

three students who were in both demonstrations and who stayed on Dec. 11 after the temporary suspensions were required to withdraw for two terms-with the sentence suspended;

two students who were at both demonstrations and had a prior disciplinary record were required to withdraw for three terms-with the sentence suspended.

The only other major disciplinary action the Committee has undertaken-dealing with 25 students charged with obstructing Dean May at a demonstration on Nov. 19-led to more serious punishments.

Last month the Committee ordered 16 students involved in that demonstration to leave Harvard for periods of up to two years.

Although the statement released yesterday does not directly compare the November and December demonstrations, Wilson said last night that there were several reasons for milder sentences in the more recent case.

"The (December) occupations were wrong in terms of illegal presence, but they were not otherwise wrong in terms of violence or harassments," he said.

"We did have to bear in mind the context in which the events of December took place," Wilson added. "Important issues were being discussed; negotiations had started and been interrupted. This cannot be taken as an excuse, but it must be seen as part of the context."

The black students from the Organization for Black Unity (OBU) who occupied the building demanded that 20 per cent of the workers on Harvard construction sites be from minority groups.

The Dec. 5 demonstration ended when OBU agreed to further negotiations with the University's representative-Archibald Cox. Samuel Williston Professor of Law. The next demonstration came after those negotiations broke down.

Since then, the University has appointed a new negotiator-Clifford Alexander '55-but the issue is still not settled.

The Committee did not release the names of any of the students involved, but notified them all by letters sent out over the last two days.

The decisions come at the end of the Committee's standard hearing procedure. After May filed charges against the 46 students, they were asked to attend hearings before three-member panels-each comprised of two men from the Faculty or an Administrative Board, plus one student.

OBU members formally boycotted the hearings, and held their own public hearings against the University early this month. But Wilson said yesterday that about six students had come to their hearings.

After the hearing panels completed their findings on each student, the full Committee met to decide on each case. Under committee rules, any student dissatisfied with his punishment may appeal for reconsideration. The Committee, however, does not have to grant the appeal.

After the decisions in the Nov. 19 case, several students issued a mass appeal for reconsideration, which the Committee denied. But Wilson said that the Committee has accepted several individual requests. In at least one case, the student convinced the Committee not to discipline him.

The evidence used against students included both films of the occupation and eyewitness testimony from officials in the building.

Wilson denied that Dean May had been "intentionally selective" in filing charges against students in the building. "It is some times hard to tell from the pictures," he said. "I have seen absolutely no evidence of selectivity on the Dean's part."