Forty Pickets Are Charged For U Hall Demonstration

Dean May filed charges against 40 students yesterday in connection with an obstructive picket line at University Hall, and more charges are expected today.

May indicated the action at noon, two hours and 15 minutes after he read a statement ordering the pickets to leave immediately and warning them that they were subject to "increasingly severe disciplinary penalties" if they remained. The warning stated that pickets were interfering "with members of the University in the performance of their normal duties and activities."

The charges, filed before the Faculty-student Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR), come in the wake of the resignation Friday of two of the three CRR student members. The CRR is an interim disciplinary committee established last fall by the Committee of Fifteen.

The two students, Richard W. Hausler '72 and Kinby Wilcox '70, presented a letter to the Committee of Fifteen-of which they will remain members-citing "wholly personal" reasons for their resignations that "stem largely from feelings about the current anti-war movement" and their participation in it.

The CRR was scheduled to open hearings last Saturday for students charged with disruptions at the Center for International Affairs (CFIA) on April 9. Those meetings have been postponed until this coming Saturday.

With the unexpected resignations of Hausler and Wilcox, it now becomes essential that the Faculty today approve the CRR resolution before it, which specifies the make-up of a permanent committee (eight Faculty members and six students). No hearings can be hold until it does so.

Pickets Set Up

About 200 pickets assembled at 7:40 a.m. Monday in front of University Hall to prevent administrators from entering the building until six demands were met. The demands were:

That striking employees receive full pay;

That ROTC be immediately abolished;

That the Center for International Affairs (CFIA) be abolished;

That Reggie Smith-a black groundsman fired on May 1 for absenteeism-be rehired and given full back pay;

That painters' apprentices be promoted to journeymen status immediately;

That John Berg and James Kilbreth-two students convicted of assault and battery charges against Dean Watson-be released and readmitted to the University.

The decision to picket yesterday as an ad hoe group was made Friday afternoon by the 350 pickets who succeeded Friday in keeping administrators out of University Hall.

The Staike Steering Committee sponsored Friday's picketing, and issued a statement at 3 a.m. Monday supporting yesterday's action, even though a mass meeting called and sponsored by the Steering Committee Sunday night voted against such support.

Yesterday's pickets encircled University Hall, holding hands in a moving line. The first confrontation came at 8:10 a.m. when Archibald Cox '34. the University's Law. professor who oversees demonstrations, attempted to enter and was turned back.

Most of the deans who have offices in the building arrived shortly after 9 a.m. but none attempted to enter. Several deans left while others stood by and watched the pickets.

At 9:45 a.m., Dean May arrived with a bullhorn and read the warning statement three times, at different points around the building.

After the warnings, May said that the Faculty Council had met Sunday night and had decided that any obstructive picketing is in violation of the CRR resolution. He said that "a warning was needed."

May left shortly thereafter. saying that he was "going to see if the personnel director (John B. Butler) would come explain the University's position on striking employees to these people." May did not return to University Hall while the pickets were there.

At 10:22 a.m., Samuel R. Williamson Jr., special assistant to Dean May, arrived and attempted to enter the building through each of its five doors.

Williamson Fails

At each entrance, pickets locked arms and stood six-deep facing the doors, completely thwarting Williamson's efforts. Wiliamson asked each time, "Excuse me, may I get through?" with varied-but always negative-responses.

No other administrators attempted to pass through the pickets during the course of the day.

A meeting of the demonstrators at 11:45 a.m. voted to remain on the steps of the building until 5 p.m.. and to send representatives to the houses to gather supporters during lunch.

The heat and a brief rain shower about 4 p.m. dispersed many of the pickets, and only about 100 remained for the group's final meeting at 5 p.m.

An NAC meeting from 4 to 5 p.m. on the Northwest steps of the building voted not to return to picket this morning, and instead to concentrate on leafleting and building towards a mass demonstration at the CFIA building Wednesday.

Other pickets-many of them SDS members-did want to rerun, however, and by a vote of 38-23, the pickets that were left at 5:45 p.m. decided to congregate again at University Hall at 7:30 a.m. today.