DEVELOPMENTS

* Fifty-six graduate students in Economics have signed a petition condemning the University for terminating Samuel Bowles's appointment without awaiting a court decision.

"We respect the position Mr. Bowles has taken, and feel that the Corporation should do so equally," the petition said. "This respect can only be shown by giving the issue a full hearing."

* Another petition has been drafted by the Student Council of the Divinity School. It urges the University to "exhaust all means" in Bowles's defense.

Previous Termination

* Samuel Bowles is not the first person Harvard has dismissed for refusing to sign the loyalty oath.

A teaching fellow in Engineering and Applied Physics had his appointment terminated last year after he failed to return successive copies of the oath mailed to him by the Corporation.

Although his appointment had only been for the Fall term of 1964, he was formally dismissed in February, at which time the Corporation made the dismissal retroactive to the last day of the appointment.

Now a Harvard graduate student, he feels that his chances for an appointment in some other state might be jeopardized if his refusal to sign the oath were divulged.