60 Attend a Party On University Land Inside Fly Garden

More than 60 people climbed the Fly Club fence yesterday afternoon to hold a party on the University-owned part of the garden, in a move to "liberate people's Field."

In a speech at the start of the event, Clifford Brass '77, one of the organizers, said the group believes "people who have paid $6000 a year to go to Harvard have every right to use this land."

The University bought the land from the Fly Club in 1956 with the intention of building a student center on it, but the club has continued to use it and pays maintenance costs. Since the purchase Harvard has paid over $50,000 in property taxes on the 13,000 square foot lot.

The Beach Boys blared from a Lowell House room while students threw frisbees and footballs across the lot. In one corner, several students played lacrosse, while two others danced polkas on the grass.

Grass-Roots Party

"It's a grass-roots type of movement," Martin Healey III '77, another of the organizers, said, adding, "We'd like to have people be able to use it whenever they want."

Fly Club member Michael K. Horton '76, who sat on the Fly Club side of a string put up by the party's organizers to mark the boundary of the University's land, said he is "very sympathetic to their point."

"But I think just running in and doing this is just liable to create chaos," he said.

Members of the Fly Club and their guests came outside the club building occasionally to watch the other students, but rarely crossed over to the University's property.

"It's a jurisdictional dispute that really hasn't been settled and it's a pity calmer heads didn't prevail," one club member who refused to give his name said, adding, "The whole thing was promulgated by red rag journalism."

The Crimson has published several articles on Harvard's ownership of the fenced-in land.

Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld '76, who visited House dining halls yesterday morning to ask people to attend, said, "It was really amazing how receptive everyone was. Their eyes just lit up--people just reeked of enthusiasm" for the idea of invading the garden.

"It isn't clear the University knows that anyone really cares," Jonathan Baker '77, who helped organize the party, said.

One student, who sat on the edge of the frisbee field reading a newspaper, said, "It's really a nice place. I've never been in here before."

Nicholas A. Carlin '77-2, who called himself a "veteran of People's Park" in Berkeley, said, "It's really a trip," but added, "We should have invited all sorts of Cambridge people here."

Asks Students to Leave

As the students who attended the rally cleaned up garbage bags they had placed around the garden for beer cans, Thomas E. Walsh Jr., the Fly Club steward--who earlier in the afternoon had threatened to call the University police if a Crimson reporter did not leave the Fly Club part of the grounds--crossed onto the University property to ask the students to leave.

Walsh told the students they had violated an oral agreement made when the University bought the land, that the University would not use the land without erecting a 12-foot fence between the club and the University's plot to protect the Fly Club's privacy.

However, Thomas Whiteside '32, a trustee of the club who was present when the land was purchased, said yesterday he has no record of such an agreement.

"It's entirely up to the College" what it does with the land, he said.