CRR Rejects Defendants' Petition; Today's Hearings Invitation Only

The Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR) rejected yesterday a petition submitted by 20 of the 23 students charged with disrupting the March 26 "Counter Teach-in" which requested a public hearing of their cases.

A statement released yesterday afternoon by CRR chairman Donald G. Anderson said that approval of the request would turn the hearings into a "public forum for the exposition of the defendants' views . . . This is not the purpose of a CRR hearing."

Hearing Today

Hearings begin today at 2 p. m. on the tenth floor of Holyoke Center. Eight to ten cases will be heard today. Archibald Cox '34, administration crisis-manager, may appear as a witness.

The CRR's main reason for ruling out public hearings is the likelihood of disruption, Anderson said last night. He distinguished between "open hearings" and "public hearings," saying that "what we have now are open hearings.

"It's been the experience of places I've investigated that public hearings don't work," Anderson said. "They get disrupted in one way or another."

Psychological Disruption

In addition to the threat of active disruption of public hearings. Anderson referred to "lots of psychological ways to be disruptive." These include the "disrupting influence of having to perform before an audience . . . People play to the audience instead of just presenting their case."

The CRR turned down yesterday a student's petition requesting a waiver of the 30-day deadline for filing complaints concerning the "Counter Teachin" disruption.