Three Are Charged For Littauer Sit-in

James Q. Wilson, chairman of the Government Department, filed charges with the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities last week against five students who participated in a six-hour sit-in at the Government Department's offices in the Littauer Center on May 10.

The five students were among a group of about 40 persons who participated in the sit-in.

Neither Wilson nor any Administration officials would divulge the names of the students charged. But three of the students--Molly E. Backup '72, Bonnie E. Blustein '72 and Claire King '72--notified The Crimson that they have received letters from the CRR informing them of the charges.

Wilson charged each student with being "one of a group of people that broke into and physically occupied the departmental office of the Department of Government." Wilson said that the group refused to leave the office, ignoring Dean Epps's warning that they would face disciplinary action if they remained.

"In my view it made impossible the normal operations of the University because the people who normally did business in that office couldn't do business while the students were there," Wilson said last night.

Wilson said he had not been involved in identifying the students who participated in the demonstration because he was out of the country at the time. He said that Dean Whitlock and Lawrence F. Stevens '65. Whitlock's assistant, provided him with the names of the demonstrators.

Contacted last night, Whitlock denied any direct involvement in identifying the protesters, but said that Stevens and Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel to the University, had coordinated the identification process.

However, Steiner also disclaimed any role, and said he thought that Whitlock and Stevens had been in charge. Stevens could not be reached for comment last night.

In a joint letter Saturday to Charles W. Burnham, professor of Mineralogy and chairman of the CRR, Backup, Blustein and King said that they had been singled out for punishment in order to "intimidate all other students who might take political action against the University."

The three students--all members of Harvard-Radcliffe SDS--said that other participants in the sit-in who were not members of SDS had not been charged even though House Masters and Senior Tutors had seen them at the demonstration.

The students occupied the Littauer offices to demand that Henry A. Kissinger '50, President Nixon's National Security Adviser and former professor of Government, not be invited back to Harvard; that military recruiting on University grounds be ended; that the University sell its share of Gulf Oil Corporation stock; and, that amnesty be given to all of the participants in the Massachusetts Hall occupation last month