News

Harvard College Will Ignore Student Magazine Article Echoing Hitler Unless It Faces Complaints, Deming Says

News

Hoekstra Says Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences Is ‘On Stronger Footing’ After Cost-Cutting

News

Housing Day To Be Held Friday After Spring Recess in Break From Tradition

News

Eversource Proposes 13% Increase in Gas Rates This Winter

News

Student Employees Left Out of Work and In the Dark After Harvard’s Diversity Office Closures

More Than 1000 Rally Against Apartheid

Demonstrators Confront Bok

By Robert O. Boorstin

It's just another day in the life of a University president," President Bok said late yesterday afternoon as he hurried down Mass Ave followed by a crowd of 75 students demanding that he speak to them about Harvard's investments in corporation operating in South Africa.

Fifteen minutes earlier, Bok emerged from a meeting in University Hall. He tried to cross the Yard to his office in Massachusetts Hall, only to be blocked by a group of demonstrators.

As plain-clothes and uniformed Harvard police attempted to clear a path for Bok, students tried to stop him, sitting down in front of him and locking arms outside the guarded entrance to Mass Hall.

Despite efforts by Harvard police to clear a path, Bok, Dean Fox, Dean Rosovsky and Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, failed in their attempt to enter Mass Hall.

The group of administrators then headed out Johnston Gate into Harvard Square, still surrounded by a large group of chanting students who demanded that Bok speak with them.

Shoppers in Harvard Square looked on as Bok stood among the shouting students. A Harvard police car headed onto Mass Ave against oncoming traffic. As the car U-turned and stopped, four plain-clothesmen helped Bok move through the crowd. Despite students' protests, Bok, aided by the policemen, entered the car.

About a dozen students then threw themselves in front of the police car, some lying down on the pavement on Mass Ave as the car inched forward.

The small group abandoned its efforts to stop Bok's departure when the car continued to move. With lights flashing and sirens sounding, the car pulled quickly up Mass Ave.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags