Faculty Group Calls for an End to the CRR

A group of ten Faculty members met with Dean May yesterday afternoon and presented him with a petition demanding immediate abolition of the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR).

The Faculty members-most of whom have been active in Harvard's chapter of the New University Conference (NUC), a radical faculty group-sharply criticised the Administration's alleged use of the rights committee to suppress the radical student movement.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that the function of the CRR is not to carry out justice," but to keep people from actively opposing the practices of the Corporation and its administration," the petition states.

A Necessary Structure

But May defended the rights committee, saying that "I don't see how the University can operate as a separate social organization without this structure. Otherwise, the only way to gain access to an obstructed building would be to call the police."

The petition, which has gathered 32 Faculty signatures thus far, follows a similar 1500 signature petition which striking students submitted to last week's Tuesday Faculty meeting. After that meeting overwhelmingly approved the new CRR, the students asked Dean Dunlop to reply to their petition.

One of Dunlop's aides told an SDS sponsored rally two days later that Dunlop did not have the authority to abolish the CRR, which the Faculty had ratified "by large margins" on three separate occasions. He added that the CRR "is not a politically repressive body."

Additional Demands

The Faculty petition, goes beyond the student statement and lists several additional demands, including:

abolition of the Center for International Affairs;

termination of on-campus military training and recruitment;

promotion of painters' apprentices to journeyman status;

full pay for striking University employees;

rehiring of Reggie Smith, a black Buildings and Grounds worker fired for alleged absenteeism two weeks ago.

"You can talk about the vilations of rights by people who are picketing." said Jonathan R. Beckwith '57, professor of Bacteriology and Immunology, "but the violations are much grosser in the case of the painters helpers and of the people living behind the Medical School whom Harvard is forcing out of their homes."

May said that the rights resolution is "a very minimal definition of the rights of every member of the University." He added that political concerns are "quite unrelated to whether entrance to this building is obstructed."

Why Me?

The group of Faculty members should have submitted its petition to the Faculty. May commented after the meeting. "The Faculty approved the CRR by a large majority after having heard [the student petition]. I don't even know why it was delivered to me," he said.

"It's obvious that Dean May and the rest of the administration have used the CRR for their own purposes." Jack R. Stauder '61, instructor in Social Anthropology, said last night. May is the complainant in this week's hearings of students charged with obstructive picketing at University Hall last week, Stauder added.