70 at Brown Demonstrate To Support Library Strike

More than 70 students demonstrated yesterday inside Brown University's John D. Rockefeller Library in support of Brown's striking library workers.

During the protest, organized by the 60-member "Students in a Vise" strike support group, the undergraduates renewed earlier demands for a complete amnesty for the 11 Brown students arrested during a pro-strike action earlier this month. The nearly 60 library employees began their strike in late August.

While in the library, the demonstrators sought a meeting with Charles Churchwell, Brown's chief librarian, but he had apparently left the building before the demonstration began.

The students then moved to Brown's University Hall, where they presented acting president Merton Stoltz with a letter demanding the appointment of a faculty-student committee to "arbitrate" the library strike, as well as a blanket amnesty for the 11 arrested students.

Stoltz, who could not be reached for comment last night, reportedly told the students he would respond to their demands in a letter today.

The 11 were arrested by Providence police on October 8--on the authorization of the Brown administration--after they attempted to block a delivery truck leaving a Brown dining hall during a separate walkout by the university's more than 350 dining hall workers. The students face both civil charges and university action that could result in their suspension from Brown.

The students' hearing on the university charges is scheduled to come before a faculty, administration and student panel on Monday, November 8.