Officer Accused of Limiting Free Speech

A member of the student committee that organized last week's Alternative Junior Parents Weekend said yesterday that a Harvard police officer had forced him to halt a demonstration on Saturday morning, possibly violating his right to free speech.

Adam F. Lifshey '91, who was yelling and passing out leaflets from a rock in front of the Science Center in an attempt to direct passing parents towards a lecture sponsored by the Minority Student Alliance (MSA), said Patrol Officer George Downing told him "very brusquely" that he had to "stop speaking right now."

In an interview yesterday, Downing said he had asked Lifshey whether his demonstration "was...sanctioned by the dean's office." Downing said he then told Lifshey to wait outside the Science Center until a police sergeant could come and talk with him "to find out what the situation was."

In addition to considering court action, Lifshey has asked the Civil Liberties Union of Harvard (CLUH) to investigate Downing's action. Julia L. Shaffner '90, CLUH's president, said the group would probably "make a bit of a fuss about [the incident]," and might "go to the administration to try to get some guidelines drawn up on free speech in a public context on campus."

The Faculty recently adopted the bulk of a report on free speech at Harvard, but the rules passed dealt with public speaking events, not situations like this weekend's.

Lifshey called the incident one in a series of "questionable civil rights abuses by the powers that be" in connection with the Alternative Junior Parents Weekend.

Students organizing the alternative weekend, designed to inform parents of Harvard's record on the hiring of women and minority faculty, faced opposition from the administration when they scheduled their lecture to conflict with three official parents weekend events.

While Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III granted a room to the Undergraduate Council's ad-hoc committee on minority and women faculty hiring for the session after a day's delay, he said he was not pleased that the students insisted on creating a scheduling conflict.

Ellen Hatfield Towne, assistant dean of students, said yesterday that students must obtain the permission of her office before distributing litera- ture. She said that, as far as she knew,Lifshey and the four or five other students withhim did not have Epps's permission to leaflet.

Demonstrations without leaflets "would fallunder free speech," Towne said. "My guess is thatit would be permissible, but if passers-by feelthreatened by that kind of behavior [Lifshey'sdemonstration], that's where someone might stepin." Towne added that she did not know the contextof Downing's action.

Explaining his actions, Downing said "theparents were coming by and [Lifshey] was yellingsomething.... They were looking at him like,'what's he yelling about?'... If he has a problemwith it, he can talk to the chief."

Immediately after the four-or five-minuteincident, Downing entered the Science Center to beon hand for an official Junior Parents Weekendspeech, and Lifshey left for the MSA-sponsoredspeech, which was about to start in Boylston Hall.

CLUH Director James F. Ryan '91 is Lifshey'sQuincy House roommate, but his protest is not "acase of political incest," Lifshey said.

"That has nothing to do with the fact that I'mseriously upset, or that my rights have beenviolated," Lifshey said