Bok, Steiner Meet With Ezera To Discuss Alleged Robbery

President Bok and Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel for the University, met yesterday with Emeka Ezera '81, a Harvard student accused of stealing a white woman's purse in Boston two weeks ago to discuss the University's support of his defense.

Emeka and Rufus V. Johannes '81, a representative of Concerned Students for Emeka Ezera Defense presented both Bok and Steiner with a list of incidents of racial harrassment and attacks directed at Black students during the past year.

The list included incidents on campus near Peabody Terrace, the Law School, and the Medical School--and in Boston.

Steiner said yesterday he wrote the "appropriate public authority about the incident" involving Ezera, adding that the University has no plans to take further action. Bok could not be reached for comment yesterday.

"President Bok expressed the concern of the University and I'm satisfied with his concern and the support the University has given to my case," Ezera said yesterday.

In a letter sent to Bok last week, student supporters requested a meeting to discuss Ezera's case and the possibility of a public statement from the University decrying racial harassment in the Cambridge area.

Ezera said Bok said he would prefer to meet with a smaller group of students to discuss the racial incidents and the University's role in resolving the situation.

Bok suggested the formation of a group of students and administrators to recommend ways to ease the racially tense environments of the area, Ezera added.

"I personally question the viability of such a committee," Ezera said, adding that he felt such a committee would work only "if they were given some policy-making authority."

Ezera would prefer to see a series of open letters from Bok on the subject, he said.

"I think it's somewhat socially irresponsible not to decry racial harassment in the area. The University cannot be an island," Eugene J. Greene '80, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Black Students Association (BSA), said yesterday.

Greene said the group plans to document and circulate at least 28 cases of racial attacks and harassment directed at Black students within the past year.

One of the incidents concerns a Black student who nearly lost his sight after whites beat him unconscious near the Soldier's Field Park last summer, Greene said.

"I intend to present them to Bok, Governor King, and if there is no response, then we may go to the NAACP" Greene said yesterday.

Greene said the University could make a statement similar to the one issued following the confinement of Anatoly Schransky, a Soviet dissident arrested in Moscow last fall