CRR Finds Nine Students Guilty Of Disrupting 'Counter Teach-In'

The Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR) has found nine students guilty of violating University rules by acting disruptively at the aborted pro-war "Counter Teach-In" in Sanders Theatre on March 26.

The Committee voted to withhold degrees from two seniors-for two years in one case-and required two students to withdraw for a term. It gave one-year suspended requirements to withdraw to three students, and warnings to two; these five students -especially the first three-are more liable to punishment in the future.

Ten students brought before the CRR on charges of helping disrupt the "Counter Teach-In" were acquitted, as was one student from whose room harassing calls were made to a student who testified for the prosecution in several disruption cases.

Each of the accused students received yesterday a letter from the CRR informing him of its decision in his case. The Committee will release later this week a report explaining the reasoning behind its decisions.

Degrees will be withheld for two years from Stuarlt R. Soloway '71, and for one term from John Pennington '67-4. Gilbert L. Bagot '73 and Coleman P. Harrison '74 were required to withdraw for the upcoming school year, with this requirement suspended during the spring term.

Soloway, Pennington and Bagot had prior disciplinary records.

The students given suspended requirements to withdraw were Mark Kaplan '71, Charles H. Perkins '74, and Joseph Rothchild '74. Ralph J. Coates '71 and James P. Stodder '72 were given warnings.

The students acquitted of disruption changes included Bonnie E. Blustein '72, Amy C. Brodkey '71, Claudio S. Buchwald '71, Alan J. Garfinkel, a third-year GSAS student, Ira D. Helfand '72, David N. Hollander '71, Peter H. Levy '71, Paul Parravano '73, and John H. Petrey '72.

Charges brought by the Administration were more successful than those pressed by members of Students for a Just Peace (SJP). Three of five students charged only by the Administration were found guilty, compared to three of ten charged only by SJP. Three of the four students charged both by the Administration and by an SJP member were found guilty.

Students required to withdraw need a favorable vote by the CRR before they can re-enter Harvard. The Committee reminded Soloway, Pennington, Bagot, and Harrison in its letters to them that "the definition of required to withdraw . . . includes the provision that sustained or significant presence on Harvard property . . . will jeopardize your prospects for readmission and can have legal consequences.

According to a CRR statement, the severity of Soloway's punishment was related to his "very serious disciplinary status and record." Soloway was put on probation after the Paine Hall sit-in of December 1968 and was required to withdraw for a term after the occupation of University Hall in April 1969.

At his hearing, Soloway defended his conduct at the "Counter Teach-In" on political grounds. "Shouting down those war criminals isn't one-tenth of one per cent of what they should get," he told the CRR hearing panel.

Pennington, charged by the Administration, did not attend his hearing. Two of the four students who stayed away from their hearings were acquitted: Blustein and Helfand.

Three University officers testified against Bagot. They were W. C. Burriss Young, assistant dean of Freshmen, Dwight D. Miller, senior adviser to Freshmen, and Lawrence F. Stevens, assistant to Dean May and Bagot's freshman adviser last year.

SJP member Stephen P. Rosen '74 brought charges against Harrison. Harrison was arrested by Boston police on May 7 at a Progressive Labor Party-sponsored protest against Medicaid cutbacks. He was charged with assault and armed robbery.

Timing

CRR chairman Donald G. Anderson said last night that if the Committee had reached its decisions before exams began, it would have required Soloway, Pennington, Bagot and Harrison to withdraw immediately.

Parravano, acquitted by the CRR, was the first blind student to appear before the Committee. Stodder, who was given a warning, was the first student accused of throwing marshmallows to appear before the Committee.