University Hall, 1969, Is Revisited

Twenty-five years ago, more than 300 students stormed University Hall and forced Harvard into an era marked by protest and student activism.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a radical student political group, made six demands concerning ROTC and Harvard's expansion into working class neighborhoods.

As part of the takeover, the students forcibly removed all Harvard administrators from the building by 12:45 p.m. on April 9, 1969. Fourteen hours later, the protests were wrested out of the building by a massive police raid that led to more than 300 arrests, fractured bones and cerebral concussions.

President Nathan M. Pusey '28, who ordered the raid, dismissed the demands with an official statement the night of the takeover.

"Can anyone belive the SDS demands are made seriously?" Pusey said. "How can one respond to allegations which have no basis in fact?"

But statements from other Harvard administrators in the next few weeks revealed that the SDS demands were based on more truth than Pusey claimed.

One of the SDS demands was that Harvard not destroy 182 units of housing in the Medical School area for a new training and research hospital. "[No] homes [are] being torn down to make way for Harvard Medical School expansion," Pusey said in his statement.

Two days later, though, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Robert H. Ebert acknowledged their plans to construct a new building which would require the eviction of the tenants of 182 homes.

Pusey also denied that the University Road apartments were going to be demolished for the Kennedy Memorial Library, which is now the site of the Kennedy School of Government. "There are no plans to tear down any apartments on University Road," Pusey said.

Contrary to Pusey's claim, however, Assistant Professor of City Planning Chester W. Hartman said the University Road apartments would probably be demolished.

"[University Planning Officer, Harold] Goyette...indicated that there is a very strong possibility that the University Road apartments will, in fact, shortly be demolished," Hartman said.

SDS claimed that the lies in Pusey's statement reflected an attempt to discredit the takeover.

"President Pusey knows that sooner or later students will reject all these lines, just as they have in the past," SDS wrote in response to Pusey's statement. "He wanted to lay the groundwork for the brutal arrests of the University Hall demonstrators."

Chain of Events

"We have occupied the building and we are going to close down the University until our demands are met," the occupiers told the deans as they were forced out of the building.

SDS refused to even speak with the displaced administrators, who included current Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III and Associate Dean of Freshmen W.C. Burriss Young'55.

At about 4:00 p.m., Dean of the Faculty Franklin L. Ford told the demonstrators from a bullhorn on the steps of Widener to leave the building immediately.

"Anyone failing to observe this warning will be subject to prosecution for criminal trespass," Ford announced to those in University Hall.

Because the protesters were unresponsive to warnings, Pusey met with the deans and decided to call in the police.

The police, a force of about 100 drawn from local suburbs, arrived at 4:00 a.m. armed with riot gear. They began by forcing about 200 students from the steps of University Hall, clubbing many in the process.

Although Harvard had conferred with Cambridge police earlier in the year to prevent violence in the case of police action, Mayor Walter J. Sullivan said Harvard's request did not specify any tactics but "left all that up to us."

One hour after they arrived, the police entered University Hall to remove the occupiers. The raid shed blood. Police action sent more than 40 students to the emergency rooms of University Health Services and other local hospitals.

The police verbally threatened students. "If you don't stay there I'll break your fuckin' head," one trooper said to a female student.

Several students received cerebral concussions and others suffered fractured bones. One trooper cracked the head of a staff member of the New England Free Press.

This police raid threw the support of the majority of campus behind the SDS demonstrators; before the raid, many students were against the takeover of University Hall.

A standing room crowd at Memorial Church voted that afternoon to begin the historic three-day student "strike" on classes as a protest to the police action.

The faculty, outraged at the arrest of students, voted to drop all criminal charges on April 11.

The conflicts between faculty, students and administrators set off a chain events which would change Harvard forever.

All units of ROTC cancelled their contracts. Harvard got an Afro-American Studies department. And the administration suffered a devastating attack which it had earlier that same year declared to be "impossible" at Harvard.

The Six Demands 1. Abolish ROTC completely by breaking all existing ROTC contracts and not entering into any new ones. 2. Replace all ROTC scholarships with University scholarships. 3. Restore all scholarships to the Paine Hall demonstrators. 4. Roll back rents in Harvard University-owned buildings to the level of January 1, 1968. 5. No destruction of 182 Black and white workers' homes around the Medical School. 6. No destruction of University Road apartments for the construction of the Kennedy School.