Inquiry Commission And CRR Both Review Speech Cancellation

The Commission of Inquiry and the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR) are for the first time considering complaints arising from the same case-the Physics Department's cancellation of a lecture by the president of the Polaroid Corporation.

The department called off the lecture by Edwin H. Land '29 on March 8, the day it was scheduled, because it feared that demonstrators protesting Polaroid's activities in South Africa would disrupt the meeting.

Four days later the Commission received separate requests to investigate the cancellation from Dean Dunlop and Anthony G. Oettinger, McKay Professor of Applied Mathematics.

At the same time, two students filed separate complaints with the CRR against a graduate student allegedly involved in planning a disruption.

Donald G. Anderson, professor of Applied Mathematics and CRR chairman, refused last night to discuss the case or reveal the identity of the graduate student.

Progress Report

But in a progress report to be distributed Wednesday, the Commission discusses the actions of a graduate student who, it says, the March 8 CRIMSON identified as one who "called for a meeting ... to plan a form of response to Mr. Land's appearance."

Allen S. Weinreb was the only graduate student mentioned in that story. He was not available for comment last night.

Anderson would not say if the CRR has decided to hold hearings on the complaints it has received.

In its report the Commission found that "under the special circumstances of the event it was perfectly understandable for members of the Physics Department to cancel the lecture."

Reasons

The Commission listed reasons for this conclusion: at a previous speech in New York, Land had been disrupted by a group of people, some of whom were reportedly now at Harvardthreatening to disrupt this speech; some of these people were from outside the University; before the meeting, demonstrators had voted "to prevent Mr. Land from speaking."

However, all the Commission's information came from interviews with members of the Physics Department and University troubleshooter Archibald Cox '34, and from the letters of Dunlop and Oettinger.

Yesterday Roger Rosenblatt, assistant professor of English and Commission chairman, spoke to a Law School student who said he had attended the meeting of demonstrators and found the report incomplete. Rosenblatt said he would investigate and, if necessary, reopen the case.

Probing

"I would have hoped to get more opinions," Rosenblatt said last night. "We should have probed further. We did know who was involved in the Physics Department, so we spoke to them. We did as much as we could. If we haven't done as much as we should have, we will do it."

The Commission was created last Fall by the Faculty to "serve as a clearing house for inquiries, suggestions, or complaints." Its powers are only advisory or mediatory. However, unlike the CRR, it can receive complaints against Faculty members and administrators and can also investigate cases after it receives a request. The CRR can only hold hearings against students.