December 3: The Faculty began its debate on ROTC, but postponed any decisions until a special December 12 meeting. About 150 SDS members demonstrated outside the meeting and chanted "ROTC Must Go." Inside, few Faculty members supported that position. Most criticized the SDS stand of else discussed the merits of ROTC's academic status. SDS plans to march through the galleries of the Faculty meeting were thwarted by a burly Buildings and Grounds employee who blocked marchers at the door.
Outsted Peruvian president Fernando Belaunde Terry, who had recently been made a visiting professor of City and Regional Planning at the Design School, said he would offer a course on South American planning in the Spring term.
December 4: The CEP, considering what ROTC proposal it should submit to the Faculty, informally agreed to recommend that the Faculty form a special committee to investigate ROTC.
Section men from Soc Rel 148 laid plans for a follow-up course to continue radical dialogue in the Spring term. The Soc Rel department looked over a tentative plan for the new course and asked the section men to clear up touchy questions of "radical bias" in the course.
December 5: While special committees of the Radcliffe Union of Students were studying ways to merge their college into Harvard, the Radcliffe administration went ahead with building plans in the Quad. Mrs. Bunting said that for $2 million the college could build an underground coffee shop linking Bertram and Eliot Halls, as well as renovate the interiors of the two dorms.
December 6: Another look at the Radcliffe budget showed disturbing signs. For the first time in more than a decade, Radcliffe had run an operating deficit in 1967-68, and even the planned 15 per cent increase in student fees did not appear likely to head off a bigger deficit in 1969-70.
December 7: Sixty black students from Harvard and Radcliffe confronted Mrs. Bunting and demanded quick action on student grievances. The black Cliffies had presented Mrs. Bunting with a list of demands two weeks earlier and claimed that she had promised to answer them by December 5. The demands included admitting 30 black Cliffies for the class of 73 and guaranteeing wider financial support.
SDS once more demanded that students be admitted to the Faculty's special meeting on ROTC. Dean Ford once more turned down the demand. SDS members said they were not sure whether they would try to enter the meeting by force.
HUC and RUS shifted their attention to co-ed living. Hoping for a Harvard-Radcliffe housing exchange in the Spring term, the groups circulated questionnaires to see which students would be willing to move.
December 9: Black Cliffies again demanded a statement from Mrs. Bunting on Radcliffie admission policies. While 100 black students demonstrated outside of Memorial Church, the Radcliffe Ad Hoc Committee of Black Students extended Mrs. Bunting's deadline for answering until December 12.
Several ROTC cadets revealed that they had testified before the CEP to ask that ROTC be retained at Harvard. The cadets said that ROTC courses" and that getting rid of courses" and that getting rid of courses" and that getting rid of ROTC would restrict students' freedom of choice. Meanwhile, the HUC drew together a panel for an open meeting on ROTC late in the week. Representatives of several ROTC standpoints--including Dean Ford, Rogers Albritton of the SFAC, James Q. Wilson of the CEP, and Hilary Putnam--all agreed to talk on the panel.
December 10: Mrs. Bunting hurriedly flew back from a conference in North Carolina when 25 black Cliffies sat in at Fay House, the Radcliffe administration building. Mrs. Bunting told the students that the college had specially alloted $5000 for recruiting blacks, and that the Admission office would keep taking black Cliffies in next year's class. The demonstration then broke up, and one black Cliffie said "we have gotten what we came for."
As the Faculty's special ROTC meeting neared, some members of the CEP revealed the plan they would recommend. Instead of immediately withdrawing academic credit, the CEP suggested that Harvard start negotiations with the Pentagon, forcing the ROTC courses to re-apply individually for credit in established departments. Colenel Pell of the Army ROTC said that the proposal "made good sense. I can't think of anything they could have done that would have pleased me more."
SDS also made its plans for the ROTC meeting. At a late night meeting, SDS members decided to try to enter the Faculty's debate in Paine Hall. Most students at the SDS meeting agreed that one of the best ways to get into the Faculty meeting would be to sit in Paine Hall before the Faculty arrived. But members didn't agree on what steps to take if they could not enter.
Another Harvard Faculty member left for Washington. Richard Nixon picked Daniel Patrick Moynihan to direct his Urban Affairs Council.
