Cambridge police will go to court this morning seeking arrest warrants against some of the people involved in last Thursday's disruption of the Center for international Affairs.
Acting on complaints filed by Harvard officials who were pushed out of the building during the incident, the police will ask for warrants on assault and battery charges, and possibly several other charges.
Meanwhile, the committee set up to handle University discipline in cases like this-the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities-still has received no complaints from victims of the Center raid. The committee will meet today to decide on the hearing system it will use to process any complaints it receives.
Both police and University officials have been reluctant to reveal any details of the case; they refuse to say how many of the invaders have been idetified or how many warrants the police will seek today. A Cambridge detective said last night that there have been "some" identifications; that "some" of those identified are Harvard students; and that the police are working on "a number" of complaints filed by people at the Center.
Dean Ford announced last Friday that seven people-of the 30 or so who entered the Center-had been identified. An authoritative source in the City government has disclosed that four of the seven are Harvard students, either currently registered or absent on leave. There has been no further report on identifications since then.
Several of the Harvard staff and students who were shoved out of the Center went to the Cambridge police station yesterday to formally file their complaints. A police spokesman said that the City's request for warrants today will include both the complaints and other "hard evidence" collected by detectives.
Harvard officials have been working closely with police ever since the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities voted last Friday to "cooperate fully with appropriate civil authorities in any cases involving physical assault."
Yesterday, the University's legal counsel-the Boston firm of Ropes and Gray-went with the Center personnel to the police station. The firm's presence, according to a Harvard dean, was part of
the University's effort "to show its sense of responsibility to protect its Faculty and employees in this kind of situation."
James Q. Wilson, professor of Government and chairman of the new Committee on Rights and Responsibilities, said that his committee is still ready to accept complaints against students involved in the Center invasion.
Both the Overseers and the Corporation have authorized the committee to handle student discipline in cases of violence or disruption, but the Faculty has not yet voted to approve the committee. A vote on the committee is one of the three items on the docket for the Faculty's meeting today.
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