A Serene Harvard: Divestment Without Shanties

The grass in front of University Hall is lush and green now. Above it the trees are turning the colors of fall.

Where once there were shanties, there is serenity.

But the vestiges remain. Students passing by that area for the first time this year might pause to look again. And the students who built the shantytown say that the fight for divestment will continue.

When most students left for the summer, the shantytown still stood, despite numerous attempts on the part of administrators and students to remove it.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III tried; Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence tried, and a group of seniors, who said they did not want the unsightly structures marring their Commencement, tried to persuade the activists to remove the shantytown for June 7.

"My hope was that we could in fact make reasoned approaches [to the protests]," said Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 in an interview during Commencement week. "Although they may have been violating the regulations of the University, we felt we ought to be as tolerant and as reasonable as possible in allowing them leniency to make their protest."

But the activists maintained their stance and would not agree to move the town unless the University conceeded to one of many demands. The University refused and the shantytown--with its centerpiece of a 16-foot symbolic Ivory Tower--graced Commencement.

Two days after Commencement, the activists voted to remove the wood-and-garbage-bag structures since they did not have enough people to guard the shanties through the summer months. The group left the Ivory Tower and one of the larger structures, which they had used as a lecture hall, standing because they were too bulky to remove.

University officials thought the students had decided to keep the structures standing and took down the remainder on Tuesday, June 10. "Our response was that [keeping any shanties in the Yard] was not acceptable," said Epps at the time.

Dorothee Benz '87, a member of the student divestment group the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee (SASC), said, "I'm not surprised or particularly disappointed that the University took the rest of the shantytown down. It's fair to say we would have taken it down had we had the time and staff."

While most SASC members agree that the shanties served their educational purpose, they differ on the effectiveness of last spring's protest activities.

Because of the shanties, the group was able to be a presence in the Yard throughout the semester, particularly during Commencement, said Benz. "It was a very clear message: 'we are here, we are here in full force,'" she said.

In addition, Benz said, the shanties served to broaden the issue of divestment with the idea of creating an open university with none of the problems of discrimination associated with what they called the closed university, the administration. "People saw it for the first time as part of a larger structure," she said.

Not everyone was pleased with the effects of the shantytown. "I think many of us had mixed feelings. Many of us felt very satisfied with what we had done, and many of us felt dissatisfied that the shanties weren't used for things as successfully as they could have been," said Richard H. Drayton '86, a former SASC member. Drayton suggested that the group could have used the shanties as a base for other activities, such as sit-ins, take-overs or rallies.

"I think they were as successful as they could have been," he added. "Had they not been there, I don't think any other things would have happened."

But as SASC gears up its activities for the fall, the group is not looking at tactics such as a shantytown to spark enthusiasm. Benz said that the student group will probably coordinate more activities with Alumni/ae Against Apartheid and a group of alumni and local activists formed during the 350th called the 350th Divestment Coalition.

During the 350th, the coalition blockaded Memorial Hall, forcing the cancellation of a formal dinner in the building for alumni. Although students were on hand to support the protesters, no student was committed to being arrested, Benz said.

With such an alliance, the activists might be able to engage in more militant forms of protest as the students would not necessarily have to risk suspension or expulsion, said Benz. "I think that kind of action is our ticket to really increasing pressure," she added.