The Facts: Takeover Split Tense Campus

Nobody at Harvard got very much sleep the night of April 9, 1969. Earlier that afternoon, several hundred students had taken over University Hall, the headquarters of the Harvard administration, and were holding the building into the night.

As the occupiers rifled through files in the deans' offices, University officials mulled their options. Most of the protestors were members of the national student radical group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). They were not the first to take over buildings in the late '60s, and the University had been preparing itself for such a possibility since the summer of 1968. In January, the Harvard Corporation, the University's highest governing board, had given President Nathan M. Pusey '28 permis- sion to call the police in the event of adisruption at Harvard.

SDS had six demands, but the most important andmost widely supported was the first: that theUniversity abolish ROTC immediately. To manystudents, Harvard's Reserve Officer Training Corpswas the most egregious of the University's ties tothe military. The students inside the buildingvoted to offer only nonviolent resistance shouldpolice storm the building.

Support for SDS and the confrontational tacticsfavored by some of their members was not strongamong the student body as a whole. A rough poll ofstudents in the Yard showed a two-to-one marginagainst the takeover.

The meeting of the occupiers inside UniversityHall didn't adjourn until 1 a.m. When they went tosleep that night, the students inside the buildingstill had no idea how the University would react.

By 10 p.m., though, Pusey had already decidedto ask police to clear students out of UniversityHall the next morning.

Shortly before 5 a.m., police arrived in theYard. Dean of the College Fred L. Glimp '50 stoodon the steps of University Hall and used abullhorn to warn the students inside that they hadfive minutes to leave the building. Those insidesaid they could not hear him. Two minutes later,the police began entering the building.

The bust, as it would come to be known, wouldonly take a few minutes. The last paddy wagonsleft the Yard at 5:25 a.m. In that time, 196students were arrested, and dozens injured. Anextra edition of The Crimson that morning captureda moment of the tumult inside the hall: "A shortbrown-haired girl was hurled against the room'swooden divider and a trooper shouted, 'If youdon't stay there I'll break your fuckin' head.'"By the time the police left, the sidewalk outsideUniversity Hall was spattered with blood.

The bust turned campus opinion upside down,aligning nearly everyone against the Harvardadministration. At a meeting in Memorial Churchthe afternoon of the takeover, students voted togo on strike against the University, refusing toattend classes.

Nearly 10,000 undergraduates and students fromHarvard's other schools turned out for a meetingin Harvard Stadium a few days later to vote tocontinue the strike.

Before the year was out, the protestors hadsucceeded in winning major changes from theadministration. The Corporation finally agreed tokick ROTC off campus.

The Faculty also endorsed the creation of theAfro-American studies department, another SDSdemand added after the takeover and bust at ameeting

SDS had six demands, but the most important andmost widely supported was the first: that theUniversity abolish ROTC immediately. To manystudents, Harvard's Reserve Officer Training Corpswas the most egregious of the University's ties tothe military. The students inside the buildingvoted to offer only nonviolent resistance shouldpolice storm the building.

Support for SDS and the confrontational tacticsfavored by some of their members was not strongamong the student body as a whole. A rough poll ofstudents in the Yard showed a two-to-one marginagainst the takeover.

The meeting of the occupiers inside UniversityHall didn't adjourn until 1 a.m. When they went tosleep that night, the students inside the buildingstill had no idea how the University would react.

By 10 p.m., though, Pusey had already decidedto ask police to clear students out of UniversityHall the next morning.

Shortly before 5 a.m., police arrived in theYard. Dean of the College Fred L. Glimp '50 stoodon the steps of University Hall and used abullhorn to warn the students inside that they hadfive minutes to leave the building. Those insidesaid they could not hear him. Two minutes later,the police began entering the building.

The bust, as it would come to be known, wouldonly take a few minutes. The last paddy wagonsleft the Yard at 5:25 a.m. In that time, 196students were arrested, and dozens injured. Anextra edition of The Crimson that morning captureda moment of the tumult inside the hall: "A shortbrown-haired girl was hurled against the room'swooden divider and a trooper shouted, 'If youdon't stay there I'll break your fuckin' head.'"By the time the police left, the sidewalk outsideUniversity Hall was spattered with blood.

The bust turned campus opinion upside down,aligning nearly everyone against the Harvardadministration. At a meeting in Memorial Churchthe afternoon of the takeover, students voted togo on strike against the University, refusing toattend classes.

Nearly 10,000 undergraduates and students fromHarvard's other schools turned out for a meetingin Harvard Stadium a few days later to vote tocontinue the strike.

Before the year was out, the protestors hadsucceeded in winning major changes from theadministration. The Corporation finally agreed tokick ROTC off campus.

The Faculty also endorsed the creation of theAfro-American studies department, another SDSdemand added after the takeover and bust at ameeting