Protest Has Smoldered Eight Months

Two days before the dedication of the Kennedy School of Government last fall, student groups demanded the right to speak at the opening ceremonies to explain why they thought the school's public affairs library should not be named after Charles W. Engelhard.

Administrators were unsympathetic. Ira A. Jackson '71, assistant dean of the K-school, reminded students of the solemnity of the dedication and its significance to the Kennedy family and to future generations.

Nonetheless, about 400 students demonstrated during the ceremony and drowned out much of President Bok's speech. After confusing last-minute negotiations, K-School officials allowed Mark Smith '72-4, a student representative, to explain the student position.

"We think the naming of a library in this school which is to train leaders, functionaries and workers in this country, a library of public affairs named after Charles W. Engelhard, is a travesty and a damned shame," Smith said.

Within a week of the October 21 dedication ceremony, students and administrators at the K-School began meeting about the library issue. K-School officials, who had been surprised by the sudden magnitude of the protests, explained Harvard's policy in soliciting gifts, but students had not agreed about what actions they wanted administrators to take.

Graham T. Allison Jr. '62, dean of the K-School, announced December 1 that Harvard would not rename the library or return the funds. He proposed a committee to study the University's entire fundraising policy, but students rejected the idea.

Meanwhile, other K-School administrators suggested a compromise that would not require the Corporation to change its contract with the Engelhard Foundation.

Administrators pointed out that an unlit white plaque on a white wall would be hard to see. Currently there is no plaque with the Engelhard name on display at the library.

Although a Student Assembly poll reported in January that 52 per cent of students responding believed students should take whatever steps would be necessary to change the library's name, the poll met no response from officials.

Thomas C. Schelling, Littauer Professor of Political Economy, suggested the formation of an informal student-faculty committee to study the Engelhard issue and the K-School's policy on accepting gifts and naming facilities.

The committee decided last month that "the giving of a gift does not entitle the donor to select a name nor does it obligate the school to accept the donor's wishes regarding names."

The committee also recommended that facilities be named only after distinguished faculty or staff, exemplary public servants or persons with outstanding contributions to international justice and peace.

The same day the committee released its report, April 11, more than 300 students marched to the K-School calling for the naming of the public affairs library after Steven Biko.

Engelhard, who died in 1971, was an American industrialist with large investments in South Africa, especially in that country's gold mines.

Protesters point to Engelhard's South African connections, including his service on the boards of government agencies involved in recruiting African labor, as proof of his complicity in that country's apartheid regime.

Engelhard said in 1967 that "the policy of South Africa as expressed by the new prime minister (John Vorster) is as much in the interests of South Africa as anything I can think of or suggest. I am not a South African, but there is nothing I would do better or differently."

Engelhard's defenders say the millionaire, a graduate of Princeton, worked to improve race relations in South Africa and the U.S. Graham T. Allison '62, dean of the Kennedy School, said in January that Engelhard's record was not as bad as often reported.

"You have certain obligations as a guest in a country in which you do business," Engelhard told a New Jersey audience in 1966. "One of these obligations consists of not criticizing what they do at home," he added.