Harvard Student Explains the Demands of Striking Students (1969)

each of you can have four or five minutes to do it, Mr. O'Connell, why don't you start? Yeah, I'll do my best. I assume that most people watching tonight have some idea who we are at this point. The proposal which was passed at the stadium meeting was a proposal that a group of us had originally submitted should be stressed that our proposal is, I think, a very strong one. It calls for the abolition of rotsy in very strong terms. It asks that there'd be no new contracts that all present contracts be terminated and that no non-contractual agreements or informal arrangements of any economy made regarding rotsy. We also request that the university, we demand the university, replace any scholarship aid, lost to Harvard students. Through the determination of these contracts, we support the demands of the Afro-American students. And then we also, on the question of discipline, feel the discipline should be administered by a faculty student committee. However, that that committee is bound to consider no punishment

greater than probation and that means even if someone is presently on probation, who was involved in the seizure of the building, that they would not be asked to leave the university. They would remain members of this community. Then we have a very long and complicated demand and expansion and I'll try to summarize it as quickly as I can. Essentially, what we want from the corporation is a very strong and binding commitment that there will be no further physical expansion of Harvard until the views of the surrounding community are represented adequately in the decision making process. Then it must also immediately commit its resources to the development of 3,000 housing units at least one half of which must be devoted to low-income families and the elderly of Cambridge. There are more of these housing demands. Harvard must not take any dwelling units out of the non-university housing stock until it's provided new relocation housing. Also, no relocation occur with the university road apartments at the medical school complex

until such time as the university has provided nearby comparable housing, satisfactory to the residents and those areas. I go away from the proposal for a minute to stress something about how I feel about the strike at this point and where I stand on a number of the issues that face this. These issues are difficult ones but it should be pointed out I think to the audience that a number of groups, the strike steering committee that Norm is here speaking for, our group and others have made very strong and very explicit demands to the administration of the corporation and in fact in a stadium meeting there was an explicit demand that the corporation and administration were appropriate respond to these demands within three days. We've had no direct response in any way in the corporation or the administration and I see this as yet one more son of at least the corporations having apparently decided that we are not members of this community

since they have not listened to what has been asked of them and made any direct response at all and I think this is a very serious issue. A great many people who are out on strike now and even people who have decided not to go out on strike seem to see the strike as an attack against the faculty. I think it should be stressed here that I at least do not see that as in any case what I stand for. The strike is against the corporation and against the administration and in fact I'd be very happy if the faculty would decide that the community here at Harvard is made up of the people who teach here and the students who are here and that they have a very serious and direct responsibility for the community around them and that we should join together and strike. I will stop at that for a minute. Thank you very much. I'll turn to Mr. Romanowitz