Hoppenstein, who had come to Harvard to speak in a Kennedy School forum that included a representative of the anti-apartheid African National Congress, said "if protesters had taken the trouble they could've heard [both speeches]" the night before Hoppenstein spoke at Lowell House.
Despite the blockade, however, Hoppenstein said his "respect and regard for Harvard is in no way diminshed." He added that he seeks "no retribution" for the May 2 protest.
Dormant Body
The CRR, a Vietnam War-era disciplinary body that had Jain Jorman since 1975, was revived at the height of campus anti-apartheid protests across the country this spring to hear the cases of some 18 students involved in both the Lowell House blockade and another earlier anti-apartheid sit-in at the office of Harvard's governing boards.
Although students are intended to constitute half of the 13-member committee, they boycotted the CRR almost since its inception in 1969 until 1980, when the College stopped inviting them to serve. Students then and now have charged that the committee can punish student protesters for political dissent without appeal to a higher body.
House committees again refused to send student delegates this spring because the committee was revived too late in the year for them to consider perennial questions of its legitimacy.
The committee is not expected to reach a verdict in either incident until late September, despite early hopes that it could finish before Harvard's June 6 Commencement. The diplomas of three seniors charged are being withheld pending the CRR's decision.