Obstructive Pickets Fail To Prevent CRR Hearings

Four hours of obstructive picketing organized by SDS and NAC failed to prevent the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities from holding disciplinary hearings in Holyoke Center this weekend.

The students-chanting "Get some feathers, get some tar, let's go get the CRR"-blocked off most first-floor and basement entrances to the building for varying periods early yesterday and Saturday, but dispersed as soon as they heard that committee members had made their way through undisclosed routes to the hearing rooms.

Yesterday's picketing lasted for one hour, during which none of those participating in the hearings approached the student line. Instead, they had arrived earlier in the morning and had eaten breakfast in Holyoke Center, according to James Q. Wilson, chairman of the CRR.

A group of about 100 demonstrators picketing on Saturday temporarily blocked eight committee members, complainants, and witnesses-who had come for hearings on the disruption of the Visiting Committee meeting at the Center for International Affairs last month. But Samuel R. Williamson, assistant to the Dean of Harvard College, soon announced that the hearing of Michael Kazin '70 was about to begin.

Kazin, his advisor, and three designated observers entered the hearing, where one of the group allegedly tore up photographic evidence and statements by University officials relating to the disturbance, and then left the building.

University officials will soon file charges with the rights committee against those who "destroyed evidence or who can be identified as obstructing access to Holyoke Center," Wilson stated last night. Officials are also considering legal measures "where appropriate," he added.

The demonstrators gathered in front of Holyoke Center at 8:15 a. m. Saturday, and stationed themselves in front of the glass doors in the arcade and the two entrances to the underground garage. The glass doors were locked, and University policemen stood inside guarding them.

Eight minutes later. Jerome A. Cohen, professor of Law and legal advisor to Robert R. Bowie-director of the CFIA and complainant in the CRR cases-rode up to the garage on a bicycle and passed through the pickets.

As Bowie and his wife drove into thegarage shortly afterward, the demonstrators jumped in front of his car and surrounded it. After warning the students to leave, Bowie left the car, and, followed by a few demonstrators, walked briskly out of the area.

Williamson, a witness to the CFIA demonstration, approached Holyoke Center three times during the morning and was denied entrance each time. He finally clouded students and entered through an unblocked route.

Alan Heimert '49. Master of Eliot House and a member of the committee, later approached the Stillman Infirmary entrance to Holyoke Center and told demonstrators he wanted to be treated in the infirmary.

After a few minutes, the students let him pass. Heimert walked to the first floor of Stillman, where he had his temperature taken, and left a few minutes later.

As one group of students blocked Wilson at the basement entrance, another larger group, many of whom wore cardboard masks, obstructed Donald G. Anderson, a committee member, and Williamson at the front entrance. "Push 'em back, push 'em back, away back," the students chanted.

The demonstrators dispersed at 10:40 a. m. after the Kazin hearing ended. When another student entered the building for his hearing, other demonstrators scuffled briefly with Harvard police, but did not afterward attempt to get into the building.