Seniors Plan Armband Protest Over El Salvador, Atlanta

A group of seniors will ask classmates to protest violence in Central America and in Atlanta by wearing green and white sashes at Commencement June 4.

The students, who are affiliated with the Harvard/Radcliffe Committee on El Salvador, will also ask seniors to show their concrete concern by donating money to a Central American refugee fund administered by the American Friends Services Committee (AFSC), a non-partisan Quaker group.

The committee will first concentrate on getting the publicity letters mailed, Judith E. Matloff '81, a member, said yesterday, adding that she did not know how successful it would be in getting University backing.

"It would be the University's feeling that any decoration on an academic costume detracts from the academic nature of Commencement," William G. Anderson '39, University marshall, said yesterday, adding that if seniors want to wear the ribbons, they should take it to their class committee for a decision.

The class committee will discuss the case on Tuesday. Vincent Marazita '81, first class marshall, said yesterday.

A campaign to include other colleges in the protest will be directed by the Harvard committee in New England and by the AFSC nationally, Matloff said. Organizers will send letters explaining the purpose of the protest and the need for money to all Harvard seniors as well as religious and activists groups on other campuses, she added.

Donations to the fund will be used to purchase food, medicines, shelter and clothing for refugess and others threatened by the conflict, Asia A. Bennett, executive secretary of the AFSC, said in a letter to the Harvard committee. The fund will also aid families of assassination victims, people targeted for assassination to escape, and political prisoners to escape, she added.