40 Blockade 17 Quincy; Corporation Stays Away

About 40 divestment activists Monday morning blockaded 17 Quincy St., the headquarters of the Corporation, forcing Harvard's top governing body to hold its scheduled bimonthly meeting elsewhere.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III said yesterday that the University will not discipline the students for the demonstration Monday. He said that this decision pertained to this particular blockade, rather than to blockades in general.

Secretary to the Corporation Robert Shenton, who has a policy of not speaking to the press, refused any comment on where the Corporation meeting was held.

At about 10 a.m. Monday, Epps came by and spoke to the students, telling them, "We've had to change the site of the [Corporation] meeting." Epps returned 90 minutes later with two other people and entered the building through the main entrance, stepping over the 35 students gathered in front of the door and into the arms of a policeman waiting inside.

Three protestors said that they had spoken to employees at the Faculty Club, located across Quincy Street from the blockaded mansion, who had said that the Corporation held its meeting there. Faculty Club officials refused comment.

Protest Ended By Noon

The students, who said they were trying to speak to President Derek C. Bok and the six other Corporation members about divestment, decided to end the blockade at around noon after it became apparent that the Corporation wasn't going to show up.

No bursars' cards were taken from students. "We don't want to arrest students," Epps said Monday.

In response to a question from one of the protestors concerning under what conditions the University would arrest students, Epps said, "It would be foolish of me to try to answer that. You have to ask yourselves whether what you are doing is effective, not whether you are making people uncomfortable."

"We weren't breaking any rules. Anything is a violation of the RRR [the Resolution on Rights and Responsiblities] if Harvard wants to make it that way," asserted Jaron R. Bourke '88, one of the blockaders. The resolution, passed by the Faculty during the height of the anti-war protests in 1970, is designed to protect personal liberties like freedom of speech and movement.

Last April about 50 students occupied 17 Quincy St. for a day to protest the University's refusal to divest its stock in companies which do business in South Africa. Several of them were given suspended University punishments by the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities, a controversial body charged with prosecuting violations of the RRR.

Addressing the group of blockaders as theyprepared to leave the steps, Bourke said, "Perhapsthis was a victory. We definitely did keep themout. They had to move across the street."

"What we demonstrated [Monday] in what was anon-confrontational confrontation way was thatthere is not voice for ourselves and what we feelis a conscience in the University decision-makingpolicy," Bourke said yesterday. "This makes itclear to all of us that we have to win a place, wehave to win a voice.