Dean's Office to Release Report On Recent Altercation at MAC

The College administration is investigating a Nov. 8 fight at the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC), and will issue a report soon, an official said.

Rebecca L. Waltman, assistant to Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68, said the dean's office had joined an ongoing Harvard police investigation. The fight could bring disciplinary action from the College because at least one undergraduate was involved.

No criminal charges have been filed in the case, said University police Sgt. Richard W. Mederos.

Details of the fight are murky, in part because police refuse to release their report of the incident. But in the 10 days since the incident, police have revised their sketchy account of what happened.

Last week, Police Chief Francis D. "Bud" Riley said two students had argued with a visitor to the MAC, knocked him to the floor and kicked him in the head. Riley identified the visitor, who reported the incident, as the relative of a Harvard employee.

But this week, Mederos said that the fighting was a mutual conflict stemming from a heated basketball game.

"It was a basketball game and in the heat of competition it may have just gotten out of hand," said Mederos, who is with the criminal investigations department.

Riley also misidentified the three parties in the fight, Mederos said.

The MAC visitor is not related to a University employee. He is also not a student, according to a MAC employee.

And police have been able to confirm the identity of only one of the two alleged attackers. The college investigation has determined that "students" were involved, said Waltman, but she declined to give further details.

A MAC employee, who spoke on condition his name not be used, said the visitor told him shortly after the incident that someone had "forearmed or elbowed" him on the basketball court, causing him to fall down.

The visitor also told the employee that when other players tried to break up the fight, someone struck him.

The visitor has returned to the MAC since the incident, the employee said.

Repeated efforts to reach John E. Wentzell, the associate director of athletics with responsibility for the MAC, were unsuccessful.