Vandalism Follows Council's ROTC Vote

The door to the office of the Undergraduate Council in the basement of Holworthy Hall was vandalized Sunday night in an incident council members fear is related to a vote on recent controversial legislation.

When Council Vice President Kamil E. Redmond '00 and Treasurer Sterling P. A. Darling '01 went to the office Monday afternoon, they said they found sheets for office hours and sign-ups for grant interviews ripped down.

Some grant applications may also have been stolen, according to council officers. Redmond said she also found a note attached to the door that read "Am I out of order?"

The note and the timing of the incident, which happened shortly after Sunday night's debate of a bill concerning the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), have led council members to believe the vandalism was done by someone upset with the debate or its outcome.

The ROTC bill passed but originally endorsed a return of ROTC to campus, drew fire from students who saw the action as a tacit endorsement of the military's discrimination against homosexuals.

On Sunday night, the legislation passed in a heavily amended form that condemned the "don't ask, don't tell" policy but offered more support for Harvard students in ROTC.

But many students on both sides of the debate said they were still dismayed with the bill.

"This is a bill that doesn't like homosexuals," one spectator said during Sunday's meeting.

Others voiced discontent with the amendments to the bill, which changed the aim from the return of a ROTC detachment to providing more support to Harvard students participating in the program.

"The resulting proposal was a major slap in the face to ROTC cadets," a council member wrote in an e-mail message to the uc-general mailing list.

According to Darling, council officers did not report the incident to the Harvard University Police Department.

He said that since the basement's location is a public area and is not restricted, he could not speculate on who the vandal might be.

"The building's open to anyone after nine o'clock in the morning," Darling said.