Demonstrators Protest B.U. Hearing; Defense Calls Charges Unconstitutional

One hundred twenty-five students and faculty rallied at Boston University yesterday to protest the B.U. trial of a student charged with obstructing on campus Marine recruiting last Spring.

Philip Ostrow, a College of Liberal Arts senior and a B.U. SDS member, is being tried for allegedly blockading a building on March 1, in which a Marine recruiter was scheduled to interview interested B.U. students.

The first witness at Ostrow's hearing yesterday acknowledged that he had not seen the defendant personally obstructing anyone attempting to enter the Castle, a B.U. activities building on Bay State Road.

Clare M. Cotton, B.U. vice-president for Public Affairs, also said he did not know whether Ostrow was part of the group outside the Castle when people who tried to enter were allegedly pushed back by the crowd.

Yesterday's demonstrators sang, cheered and listened to speeches for two hours outside the building, occasionally making hearing difficult in the second-story room where the trial was conducted.

Mitchell Sikora, the administration appointed hearing examiner, denied 11 preliminary defense motions contesting the constitutionality of the hearing, the adequacy of the hearing room, and the lack of any subpoena power.

Kenneth Watson, B.U.'s associate counselor and its representative at the hearing, said that John H. Burkett, the former Director of Student Support Services who levied the charges against Ostrow, had declined to appear at the hearing.

Ostrow and Seth Schenfield, his legal advisor, argued that Burkett's appearance was essential to making the defense's case. Burkett, who was responsible for investigating the March 1 demonstration, took a leave of absence in September and has made no public statement on the charges.

Defense also contended that the small hearing room was part of a "deliberate attempt" to keep the proceedings from public views.

Sikora said that the location of the hearing was a matter of pre-trial agreement between the defense and the administration, and that he would make no change in that agreement.

Disciplinary Code

Protest over the hearing has been part of a larger, more general campaign against a provisional student disciplinary code on which B.U. is basing part of its charges.

Students for Action, the ad hoc B.U. coalition which led yesterday's demonstration, contends that the code, passed April 20, cannot be applied retroactively, and that the vagueness of its provisions and the structure of its implementation render it unconstitutional.

Under the code, B.U. President John R. Silber appoints the hearing examiner, the chief investigator, the administration's prosecutor, and the panel charged with choosing members for each three-person jury.

Ostrow moved that the hearing examiner step down on grounds of conflict of interest, since his job made him a paid employee of B.U.'s administration.

Administration prosecutor Watson replied that no court case to his knowledge had overturned the diciplinary decisions of private universities because of the kind of objections defense was making.

Defense further objected that Cotton's testimony was irrelevant, since he could not identify Ostrow in the crowd at those times when he said he saw people blocked from entering the Castle.

Watson said B.U. was willing to acknowledge that Ostrow had not always been part of the blockade which had lasted from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 1.

Watson introduced what he called "exculpatory" photographs of the demonstration which verified that Ostrow was not always present.

Ostrow's hearing was extended to this afternoon due to the unexpected length of the questioning