Thirty years later, the events of April 1969still stir strong emotions. In some ways theparticipants are, as Rudenstine and Knowles foundout, still angry.

A Radical Moderate

Richard E. Hyland is now a law professor atRutgers University. In 1969, he created order outof the chaos students had created insideUniversity Hall. Soon after the students hadejected the administration, Hyland spurred thecreation of administrative units among theprotestors--food, sanitation and political actioncommittees were soon formed. They were loyal totheir pledge of "democracy" and voted to not useviolence in the case of a bust and to not usemarijuana.

The next morning their resolve was tested whenstate and local police forcibly removed thestudents--"beating the shit" out of them in theprocess, he recalls.

His interaction with authority while atHarvard--both in University Hall and theclassroom--inspired Hyland to enter academiahimself.

"Harvard was universally regarded as a terribleteaching university," Hyland says now. "Mystudents will have a teacher who they willremember. I want them to remember these classes 40years later."

He says now he feels the actions of thebuilding's occupiers--ostensibly about Harvard'sinvolvement in America's war effort in Vietnamthrough its support of the Reserve OfficersTraining Corp (ROTC)--were a worthwhile protestagainst a University out of touch with itsstudents.

"I knew an awful lot of Harvard Faculty. Ididn't run into anybody who was a role model forhis students," Hyland says. "That was the Harvardwe destroyed, and it was worth destroying."

Angry on the Other Side

Jon D. Levenson, now List Professor of JewishStudies, was among the minority of students whosided with the more conservative approach of theFaculty and administration.

Levenson felt that the SDS robbed him of hisright to an education. He says the studentsdelighted in more than the high-minded purpose ofthe their protest--they loved the excitement.

"It's a different view of things from the wayit's usually presented," he says. "Lots ofradicals deeply enjoyed the confrontations, itgave them a thrill in shutting down theUniversity."

Levenson says that though the bust was perhapsmore violent than necessary, he also understoodthe administration's reaction.

"At the time they seemed very lenient to me,"Levenson says. "Relative to the number of peopleinvolved, there seem to be very few who werepunished."

Levenson, now employed by the administration hesupported in 1969, has if anything only hardenedhis views towards student protestors in the 30years since the bust.