"I don't see it as a kangaroo court. I don't see it as some invidious attempt on the part of the administration to quell the divestiture movement," Raphael continues. According to Raphael and others familiar with the CRR, the body already incorporates many of the safeguards and checks its detractors seek.

Block and Take

Last year the University called on the CRR to investigate charges stemming from two South Africa-related protests: the blockade of a South African diplomat in Lowell House and the occupation of the 17 Quincy St. headquarters of Harvard's seven-man governing Corporation.

During its 15-year-history, the CRR has heard more than 370 complaints arising from 15 separate incidents, with all but the most recent pair of them occuring between 1969-1975. But since its inception students often have refused to take part in the group, calling the CRR the henchman of "a ruthless University."

Ellen J. Messing '72-'73, who refused to testify before the CRR several times, says students seldom participated in CRR hearings when she was an undergraduate. "At one point there was a mass movement to refuse to attend CRR hearings," says the civil rights lawyer. "The feeling was that [the committee] was a tool of the administration."

Today, students cite that feeling as justifying their protest of the body. The CRR exists to quash political debate and that is reason enough to protest, they say, and how it goes about punishing campus dissent is irrelevant.

"I chose not to deal with them because I decided it was not a valid body," says Michael C. Young '88, a defendant last year. "Since I refused to deal with them, I don't know I can comment on how they function," he continues.

But faculty members and administrators draw a firm line between the administration, which brings charges against students, and the faculty, which evaluates the charges with the CRR. The real objective for University disciplinary bodies, faculty members say, should be to escape the influence of administrators who police students, and who may have an interest in quashing protest movements which become disruptive. They say the CRR well satisfies that objective.

They say the faculty members who sit on the CRR--many of whom are tenured--can resist administration pressure to crack down on students.

"The CRR went so far out of its way to understand the student point of view, even when the students did not show up, that I'm still surprised," says Mark Friedell, CRR member and assistant professor of computer science. "One thing would be to say, 'All right, lets hear from the dean and that's it,' the other would be to go even further to consider the student view."

Currier House senior Raphael says the CRR tried to distance itself from the administration during last year's proceedings, remembering: "I got the sense there was every attempt to be impartial, wondering if Dean Epps had said something for a certain effect [for example]."

Raphael says the CRR's interpretation of charges against students underscores its effectiveness as a judge. He points to an instance when last year's group threw out charges against an undergraduate. "He was charged with obstructing the movement of the [South African] consul by standing in the doorway of the entryway," Raphael recalls.

"As it turns out, he was standing by the window and not the doorway," the CRR student observer says. "He obstructed the freedom of movement of the consul nonetheless, but the committee would not charge him because in fact, he was not guilty of the charge" Epps lodged.

Reforms Imminent

One year after those investigations against 18 protesters began, students are still leveling a variety of complaints against the CRR. They charge it doesn't adequately ensure due process and can change its procedures whenever it chooses. Many also criticize the body for what they call its arbitrary jurisdiction, saying the body goes after students whenever a protest movement picks up steam.