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Harvard Will Not Suspend Blacks for OBU Protests

None of the black students the University has disciplined for two December building occupations will have to leave the College, but nine have been placed on "suspended suspension" and 20 others have received "warnings."

The Committee on Rights and Responsibilities-the Faculty's disciplinary agent-announced the decisions yesterday in 37 of the 46 cases stemming from Dec. 5 and Dec. 11 occupations of University Hall.

The remaining cases-three involving black students, six involving whites charged with harassing Dean May-will be decided soon, the Committee said.

In the decisions announced yesterday, the Committee divided the cases into several groups, depending on each student's past disciplinary records and degree of involvement in the demonstrations.

Suspended Suspensions

In the nine most serious cases, the Committee decided that the students should be "required to withdraw" for one to three terms-but it suspended the sentences.

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That means that the students will actually have to withdraw if, in the Committee's words, they are involved in "any further misconduct deemed sufficiently serious to warrant lifting the suspensions."

Students who have been required to withdraw may return to the College only with the approval of the Committee.

In a 15-page statement explaining the decisions, the Committee said that both occupations were "detrimental to the function of the University and its continued existence as a community."

It added that the December 11 occupation-in which students left the building only after the University had temporarily suspended them and obtained a court injunction against the demonstration-was a more serious offense than the first.

But the Committee said that no individual students were charged with "use of force against individuals or damage to property"-or anything more serious than participation in the occupations.

The lack of individual charges-together with the students' past disciplinary records-meant that the decisions"should reflect the University's concern for understanding, good faith, and progress on the crucial issues at stake," the statement said.

The 37 cases fall into five categories:

eight students were acquitted because of insufficient evidence against them. Dean May-who brought charges against all the students-asked that charges be dropped in two cases, and in six others the Committee decided to dismiss the case;

twenty students who were identified at only one of the two demonstrations and who had no previous disciplinary record here "placed on warning" for three terms. The warning means that "any further misconduct will lead to more severe disciplinary action";

four students-who were either at both demonstrations or who stayed at the Dec. 11 demonstration after May ordered them temporarily suspended-were required to withdraw for one term, with the sentence suspended;

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