Bell, the first Black tenured professor at the Law School, announced his decision to ask for a third year of leave, which would have required a special extension from the University.

President Neil L. Rudenstine and the Harvard Corporation did not grant the extension to Bell, who iscurrently a visiting professor at New YorkUniversity Law School.

Bell Called upon students to take action andstand up to Law School officials. "A commitment tochange must be combined with a readiness toconfront authority," Bell said.

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a personal friend ofBell, also expressed his belief that the studentsshould protest in a speech later that month. "Youmust be prepared for litigation, demonstration andeven jail," Jackson said.

Some students, taking Bell and Jackson's wordsto heart, organized numerous discussions with thedean, protest marches and even a series of sit-insin professors' officers.

The students began their campaign quietlyenough, sending out letters to the Law Schoolcommunity and to Dean Clark. Later, they organizedsurprise visits to the Law School faculty diningclub to speak more directly with faculty members.They also rallied outside Harkness Commons.

The students even woke up early one morning tomeet Clark outside his home and walk him to work,after an eight-day ultimatum they had issuedexpired.

The students outlined their demands to thedean, who had expressed his interest in hiringmove women professors in an open letter earlierthat week.

Students demanded an immediate increase inminority hiring, an increased role in the hiringprocess and a cooperative faculty-student effortto identify candidates to hire. None of the threestudent goals have been met, and of the 64 tenuredor tenure tracked professors at the Law School,there are still only five white women and sixBlack men.

Although Clark tried to address some studentconcerns by holding a series of forums anddiscussions, the talks did little to appeasestudent anger and in fact convinced many that theadministration had little will to changelong-standing policies.

As the semester continued and theadministration continued to resist change, theprotests became more angry and more provocative.

The students held two silent sit-ins in theoffices of Professor of Law Reinier H. Kraakmanand Carter Professor of General JurisprudenceCharles Fried. Fried subsequently filedAdministrative Board charges against a few of thestudents involved. The students said the sit-inswere an attempt to gain faculty attention, as theytargeted professors they considered to be the mostvocal opponents of their diversity movement.

Detractors said the sit-ins were not productiveand interfered with office work, while activistsmaintained they were the only way to force theadministration to make changes.

Many students were also enraged by commentsmade by Dean Clark which appeared in an editorialin The Wall Street Journal.

Clark was quoted as saying he believed theprotests to be a result of feelings of insecurityon the part of minority students that they wereprograms.

Students responded to the statements and toClark's failure to meet their demands with a 25hour sit-in outside his Griswold Hall office.

Even as the school announced that theprotesters would face a disciplinary hearingbefore the Administrative Board, Clark foundhimself the subject of even more criticism.Students blasted the dean for not respondingadequately to a parody of murdered feminist legalscholar Mary Joe Frug in the spoof issue of theHarvard Law Review. The Harvard Communitywas shocked by what many called a misogynistic andinsensitive article in the Law Revue.

The turbulent semester finished in typicallegal fashion, with a hearing.

In early may, the students involved in thesit-in, dubbed the Griswold Nine, went before theAdministrative Board. The students received awarning, the most lenient punishment the Ad Boardcan give. It was the first time protesters hadbeen charged since the early seventies.

Some say protests occur every spring, as thestudent body grows restless. CCR members andcertain professors disagree.

They consider this year extreme in itsactivism. And many say they believe it willcontinue into the fall, until the Law Schoolfaculty votes to hire, or at least review, moreminority and women candidates