Pickets to Block Off Univ. Hall at 8 a.m.

A mass meeting of 900 students voted last night to block off University Hall at 8 a.m. this morning with an obstructive picket line.

The meeting- called by the Strike Coordinating Committee- approved the action along with a proposal that striking students "use any tactics necessary" to enable University employees to participate without reprisal in the strike.

Dean Sheppard '71, a member of NAC, in proposing the picket line, said that it would bar all administrators from entering University Hall until Harvard accepted the student demands.

A group of counter-demonstrators will assemble behind Stoughton Hall at 7:30 a.m. to formulate tactics and then march to University Hall in an attempt to prevent the demonstration, Kevin B. Murphy '73, spokesman for an ad hoc group opposed to the picketing, said last night.

A Strike Coordinating Committee statement issued early this morning said that the demonstrators plan to block only the deans, and that "no violence will be initiated by picketers."

Earlier yesterday afternoon, 500 students demonstrated in the Yard in support of the three nationwide strike demands. Dean May told the demonstrators that the would travel to Washington this weekend to protest the Indochina war and that "we are all united in opposition to political repression."

As a handful of students chanted "abolish the CRR," May said that large numbers of universities "are now closing because of violence. We have not had violence. I am proud and I think we should all be proud," he said.

Two hundred students, led by members of SDS, then marched to Massachusetts Hall and confronted L. Gard Wiggins, administrative vice-president, with questions about the University's treatment of its employees.

Last night's meeting decided that it would set up the militant picket line to force Harvard's acceptance of three demands:

that workers be allowed to strike without official or unofficial reprisal;

that all employees receive their pay for the rest of the year regardless of the strike's outcome;

that workers' time on strike not be deducted from paid vacation time, which John Butler, director of Personnel, told the SDS demonstrators at Massachusetts Hall was standard University procedure.

The meeting also adopted two additional demands- proposed by SDS spokesmen- that Harvard promote painters' apprentices to journeyman status and rehire two black Building and Grounds workers fired last Friday.

'Vicious Slap'

Sheppard, referring to the Faculty's refusal to endorse the strike's demands concerning employees, said that "The University has already put a vicious slap in the face of employees who have gone out on strike," and urged the group to "take action to enforce those demands."

One student objected to Sheppard's proposal, stating that "if we lake this militant action. there's a good chance they'll close the University. For most of us, that means the strike is going to fail," he said.

Standing Ovation

Barbara A. Slavin 72 spoke in favor of the picketing. saying, "If we say we have a right to strike and University employees- who are even more oppressed by this war than we are- don't have a right to strike, then we don't have a right to open our mouths in the first place." She received a standing ovation from many at the meeting.

The proposal passed by a vote of 522-417.

As the meeting drew to a close, about 50 students opposed to the picket line entered the meeting, and the meeting's chairmen- after an unclear voice vote. hastily declared the session adjourned. After an hour's discussion. 250 students opposed to the picketing failed to decide how they would deal with the protest.