Abe S. Hoppenstein, the Consul-General from South Africa, two years ago eluded divestment protesters by going through the tunnels after giving a speech in Lowell House. Hoppenstein had been invited to speak at Harvard by the Conservative Club. Protesters gathered during and after the speech, and blockaded Hoppenstein within the Junior Common Room.

With the help of a human battering ram formed by University police, Hoppenstein forced his way to a nearby room that had tunnel access and descended the staircase. More police prevented protesters from following.

Bradley H. Boyer '87, Director of Police and Security Paul E. Johnson, a detective, and a tunnel engineer escorted the diplomat to Adams House's Linden Street tunnel exit near the Harvard Lampoon.

"The police were concerned that Adams House was too close and that SASC [Southern Africa Solidarity Committee] members might be watching tunnel exits," says Boyer. However the escort did not have much choice--the tunnel turns into a one-foot-high crawlspace to cross Massachusetts Avenue, above the T tunnel.

Instead, "we waited just inside that door," Boyer recalls. "The police called an unmarked car to the Lampoon."

"We stood in the tunnel for about five minutes, waiting for the police car to be positioned," he says. When it arrived, the group ran to the car and took Hoppenstein to the airport.

The Consul-General took his tunnel escape in stride, according to Boyer. "He was upset to a certain degree when he was trapped in the junior common room. After that he was composed and took it with good humor," Boyer says.

Undergraduate Explorers

Students are understandably fascinated by tunnel lore, and more than a few of them decide to explore the subterranean world for themselves. Tunnel supervisors say that three or four students are usually caught each year, although Andrew Culhane, night shift supervisor, adds that as many 25 people have been nabbed in a single year.

"I don't know how the heck they get in, but they do," says Robert Howard, the relief shift supervisor.

"Most of the time they get out some door or another," says Roger L. Edgely, a day-shift supervisor for operations. "Once you get in, you can get out almost any door" because the doors are not locked from the inside, he says.

Since a signal lights up in the utilities master control room in the basement of the Science Center whenever a door is opened, it is fairly easy for tunnel supervisors to catch intruders. If a door is opened and the control room operator hasn't heard about it, University Police and a tunnel operator are immediately sent to deal with unauthorized persons, Culhane says.

The police consider unauthorized entry by students to be a criminal offense. "As far as we're concerned, if someone's not supposed to be in a place, it's trespassing, whether it's a student or anyone else," says Deputy Chief of Police Jack W. Morse. Possible arrest is not the only hazard faced by would-be explorers. The steam tunnels themselves can be hazardous.

Even a small break in those lines can be dangerous, says Culhane, a night-shift supervisor of Harvard's utilities plant. "You stay keenly aware while walking through the tunnels and listen," he says. "A 100-pound steam line with a pinhole in it can do your skin a lot of damage."

However, the danger doesn't deter some students.