Cox Says Punishment Not Subject of Talks

Dean May intends to charge some of the students who occupied University Hall yesterday with violations of the Faculty's Resolution on Rights and Responsibilities, but has not yet decided how many complaints he will file or what charges he will bring.

In a statement to reporters last night, May said that he "obviously" thought that there was "a violation" of the Resolution, but that he would "have to think about what precisely the evidence was" before he filed the complaints.

Any complaints that the occupiers violated the rights of members of the University community must be brought before the nine-member Committee on Rights and Responsibilities, which was given disciplinary powers by the Faculty at its September 30 meeting.

Yesterday, five members of the Committee-all but one of the special "subcommittee of six" of the Committee of Fifteen-took turns waiting in the basement of Grays Hall, where University officials met during the morning, to consult with May if he decided to invoke his powers of "temporary suspension."

May did not, however, take any disci-plinary action against any of the demonstrators yesterday.

In drawing up his complaints, May probably will be unable to identify more than a few of the students who occupied University Hall yesterday.

Spokesman for the Organization for Black Unity (OBU) said last night that University officials-including May-who entered the building for discussions met only with a small group of OBU representatives, and did not speak to the large majority of those in the building.

Other officers of the University were not able to enter the building at any time, as they were during last April's occupation, to identify its occupiers. Photographs and television films taken of the group as it left University Hall, therefore, may be the only means of identifying any but the leaders of the demonstration.

The four-point agreement signed by OBU leader Philip Lee and Archibald Cox, Williston Professor of Law, did not discuss the possibility of discipline for the demonstrators. Spokesmen for OBU and Cox both denied yesterday that they had reached any understanding on future University disciplinary action.

"This is the entire agreement," Cox said. "There is no other oral agreement of any kind."

Committee

The Committee on Rights and Responsibilities has the power to "separate" students from the University, to require them to withdraw, or to issue "warnings" which become part of a student's permanent disciplinary record.

Last spring the Committee of Fifteen, exercising similar powers, separated five students and required another eight to withdraw for a semester or a year for their roles in the occupation of University Hall last April. In addition, the Committee recommended that the Faculty "dismiss" three others-a more severe punishment which the Faculty approved-require 20 to withdraw (but suspended their sentences) and put 99 students under warnings.

At that time, University officials emphasized that the penalties of dismissal and separation were invoked only against students who "physically manhandled members of the University community" or who "used force in some other manner." or who had previous disciplinary records.

No Damage

May said last night that possible damage in University Hall was still "being assessed," but reporters who entered the building late in the afternoon yesterday saw only a few scattered papers and some remains of spilt paint-which those in the building had evidently tried to remove-on the floor.

Official files in the building. May said, were "all right."

Last April, some of those who participated in the occupation of University Hall removed and published confidential materials taken from files in the building.

Three-member panels of the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities are now holding hearings in the cases of 26 students whom May has said "denied him liberty of movement or took part in an obstructive sit in" at his office November, 19.

Those students were also protesting the University's employment policies.