Sit-in Group Demands No Punishment

Ninety students who participated in last week's sit-in at Paine Hall met last night to formulate their demands and to plan stategy for the next several weeks.

In a four-hour meeting at William James, the group voted to base its efforts at gaining support among students and faculty on demands that the University abolish ROTC and grant amnesty to all participants in Thursday's demonstration.

The meeting also adopted a statement charging that the Administration opposed the sit-in because it wishes to keep ROTC at Harvard, and that therefore any punishment would be an act of "political repression."

At the close of the meeting, the group decided to hold a rally in support of its demands on January 10, three days after the next scheduled Faculty meeting. It was agreed that a small group would picket and leaflet at the Faculty meeting, but that it would be impossible to organize a large rally by the time of the meeting.

The two "organizing demands" on ROTC and amnesty were proposed by Jeffrey C. Alexander '69, vice-president of the HUC and a participant in the sit-in at Paine Hall, and were approved by a large majority. Prior to the vote, several speakers argued that the group should demand only equal punishment for all, rather than total amnesty. One speaker called the demand for no punishment an implied threat to the Administration, adding, "If you're going to threaten the Administration, you've got to have something to threaten them with. We can't say that the Administration can't punish us, because they can."

The majority of those at the meeting, however, appeared to feel that since the group would strongly oppose any punishment which the Administration handed down, a demand for equal punishment was implicitly a demand for no punishment.

Eugene H. Jenness '69 proposed that the participants in the demonstration and their supporters form a new group to be called the United Students, or US. This suggestion, however, was not voted on.

Jonathan M. Harris '68, who acted as chairman, said after the meeting that the group planned to do "more work than we've ever done before" to develop support among students and faculty members.