Threats, Protests Draw Increased Security at WJH

The Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) has increased security at William James Hall in recent weeks in response to continual protests and anonymous threats directed at an animal enclosure on the 10th floor.

In a related development, nearly 50 animal rights protesters marched through the Square Saturday, urging Harvard to release its captive monkeys.

Protesters have focused on a 10th-floor complex, the Primate Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, where 17 cotton-top tamarins and six vervet monkeys are held captive for research.

Professor Marc D. Hauser, who was tenured last year in psychology for his groundbreaking work in the field of animal cognition, directs the lab and its staff of more than 30.

Two veterinarians help care for the monkeys.

Hauser was not available for comment yesterday afternoon.

According to his lab's website, all of the experiments performed are non-invasive--that is, the animal is not killed or physically harmed. Many tests involve visual perception and audition, investigating the ways in which non-human primates decipher sensory stimuli.

But animal rights activists protest the captivity, saying that animal development is impeded.

Police officials said this weekend's protests were peaceful, and that the protesters were not related to a group of activists who in October sent razor-blades in letters to prominent primate researchers, including a dozen at Harvard. The FBI is investigating those threats. At the time, HUPD increased its patrols around the building.

In light of the series of recent, usually unannounced protests near William James Hall itself, HUPD and building officials are once again stepping up security.

"We're doing additional directed patrols in the area," said Peggy A. McNamara, HUPD's spokesperson.

The lab itself is separated from the rest of the building by an autonomous keycard system. Only authorized personal are allowed onto the floor with the animals.

"The lab has an ongoing policy

about being careful about these sorts of things," said Eric R. Robinson '01, a cognitive neuroscience concentrator who worked there last summer.

"Professor Hauser makes sure that people are cautious about letting people on the floor with the animals," he said.

On Friday evening, a security guard stopped a man wearing a tweed jacket from entering one of the William James lobby elevators. According to a police source, the man asked the security guard whether there was animal testing in the building.

The guard called police when the man denied that he was affiliated with the building.

Saturday night, the heavier police presence was visible. Students from an undergraduate group received permission to hold a party on the fifteenth floor, but a security guard, mishearing one of the students, notified HUPD dispatchers that the group was affiliated with animal rights protesters.

HUPD officers raced to the building, checked to make sure all the doors and windows were locked and continued a close patrol of the area.

Officials acknowledge the recent increase in attention paid to the lab has made them nervous.

Professor Daniel L. Schacter, chair of the psychology department, confirmed administrators had e-mailed department members and staff about the threats, though he declined to elaborate on the nature of what was advised.

Several students who work as assistants in the building said they had been made aware of bomb threats, though neither HUPD or William James Hall officials would confirm them.

"If [one] was received [by William James Hall], then it wasn't called in to us," McNamara said.

In an unrelated incident yesterday, an hour examination for Literature and Arts A-18: "Fairy Tales" in the Fogg Art Museum's Norton Room was delayed when a bomb threat was called in just before noon.

Police searched the bags of students as they entered. The exam began

without incident, 30 minutes later.

--Garrett M. Graff and Matthew F. Quirk contributed to the reporting of this article.