Who Are Those Kids in University Hall?

IF YOU are a white-junior living off campus, concentrating in English or Social Relations and coming from the Eastern United States, an alumnus of a private school not holding a scholarship at Harvard, you probably would have been a clubbie 25 years ago.

Today, these are the marks of the archetypal student arrested in University Hall last Spring, according to a computer study of 118 persons disciplined for the takeover.

Compiled by a Faculty member after the Spring events, the study also shows that Cliffies participated in the protest on a slightly greater scale than Harvard students. Thirty-two of the 118 (or 27.1 per cent) were in University Hall the night of the police bust. This compares with a 4:1 ratio of men to women undergraduates in the University.

Between 200 and 400 students were inside the occupied building on the afternoon of the takeover April 9 and through the night. When the police arrived at 5 a. m. the next day, less than 150 persons had remained inside. About 100 students linked arms and sat on the steps to non-violently bar the police entrance.

The survey covers 118 of the 138 students who were disciplined, Percentages in it are accurate to two per cent.

A breakdown of the study follows:

Male-Female Ratio

protesters college

men: 86 4,779

women: 32 1,235

total: 118 6,014

Harvard Class

'68 3

'69 15

'70 17

'71 29

'72 20

total 84

High School Background Harvard (%)

protesters college

public school: 45 60

private school: 55 40

Radcliffe

public school: 44 60

private school: 56 40

Scholarships Harvard (%)

holding scholarships: 21 (24%) 40

not holding scholarships: 65 (76%) 60

Radcliffe

protesters college (%)

holding scholarships 6 (19%) 30

not holding scholarships: 26 (81%) 70

Of the 21 Harvard students holding scholarship stipends, 16 were receiving less than the average $2000 award. These students were not classified as coming from lower class backgrounds. They are usually from large families with middle or upper middle incomes.

Harvard House Distribution

Dudley (off-campus) 18

Adams 11

Quincy 11

Dunster 8

Lowell 5

Eliot 4

Winthrop 2

Kirkland 2

Levered 1

total 62

(freshmen not included)

Radcliffe House Distribution

East House (includes off campus) 16

North House 11

South House 5

total 32

Concentration

English 12

Social Relations 12

Government 8

Mathematics 5

History 3

Economics 2

Philosophy 2

Music 2

Biology 2

Anthropology 2

Physics 0

Chemistry 0

Engineering 0

Geology 0

(This is just a sampling of major concentrations. Students with double-majors are included in the closest field, hence History and Lit students are included as English majors. These double majors, however, account for a minimal number of students. Freshmen are not included because they had not declared a concentration at the time. A computer check was not run on Radcliffe students.)

Although specific statistics are not available, the study shows that the protesters came largely from the Eastern states, with a large number from New York and Massachusetts. That area least represented among the students was the South. The geographical distribution of students as a whole also shows a large number of students coming from the Eastern region.

Of the 118 studied, only one was black. The percentage of black students in the college averages slightly under 5 per cent, but varies with each class. Although the number of blacks actively involved in the occupation last Spring was miniscule, it would be a mistake to con??? that blacks are reluctant to take radical action. In December, over 125 blacks students in the Organization for Black Unity seized University Hall for five hours to protest Harvard hiring practices.

THE results of the survey reinforce critics of the Harvard radical movement who call it "elitist" and unrepresentative of teh blacks and poor white which the movement supports.

At the same time, however, they will be little comfort to many of those crities who often add "Thanks God, it's not our kids." For the survey also shows a wide distribution of radicals in previously "conservative" areas.

Houses, for example, which have always been considered the domain of conservative traditionalists-Eliot, Lowell and Quincy-accounted for 39 per cent of the survey cases.

Two years ago, the system for distributing freshmen in the House system was changed to break down the enclaves of provincialism that House Masters had set up. With the change came a slow distraction of stereo-types: Eliot House as the prepple House: Winthrop, the Jock House: Quincy the center of student government; Dunster and Adams, the radical Houses.

The new distribution also exposed more students to a wider range of political opinions, and specifically radical opinions, not only at the dinner table, but in late night roommate bullsessions.

While the radicals exemplified in this survey are hardly the working class kids SDS would like, they do include some surprises. Two starters on the 1968 football team were members of SDS last year. A large number of students in the Hasty Pudding, the Fly, and Spee Club also participated in the University Hall occupation.

The preponderance of students from private schools and not holding scholarships can be interpreted in two ways.

"It's not surprising" one radical leader who was fired this Spring, said. Upper middle class students from private schools are exposed to a wider variety of experiences, he explained, and tend to discard the dogma of Americanism more easily. Their training has favored objectivity and therefore they are the first to question accepted American values.

In addition, working class students who are admitted to Harvard are most strongly imbued with the capitalistic ethic. They have to be, he said. And when the time comes to risk their scholarships in a building occupation, they have the most at stake.

On the other hand, blacks and working class students have the most actual experience in the concepts which SDS espouses and therefore are not swayed by often idealistic and vague demands on the University.

They have been most successful by working with the system and know its benefits as well as its deficiencies, critics of radicalism argue.

The same two perspectives can be used to analyze the importance of the concentration distribution. The bulk of the student protesters in the survey majored in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Very few come from the Natural Science fields.

In general the Humanities and Social Sciences encourage the development of a "world view." The organization of facts into comprehensive schematic philosophies is stressed. In the sciences, generalizations are the jumping off point for specific research and scientists tend to be more skeptical of radical demands or rhetoric which is not accompanied by an appendix of facts.