SDS refused to even speak with the displaced administrators, who included current Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III and Associate Dean of Freshmen W.C. Burriss Young'55.
At about 4:00 p.m., Dean of the Faculty Franklin L. Ford told the demonstrators from a bullhorn on the steps of Widener to leave the building immediately.
"Anyone failing to observe this warning will be subject to prosecution for criminal trespass," Ford announced to those in University Hall.
Because the protesters were unresponsive to warnings, Pusey met with the deans and decided to call in the police.
The police, a force of about 100 drawn from local suburbs, arrived at 4:00 a.m. armed with riot gear. They began by forcing about 200 students from the steps of University Hall, clubbing many in the process.
Although Harvard had conferred with Cambridge police earlier in the year to prevent violence in the case of police action, Mayor Walter J. Sullivan said Harvard's request did not specify any tactics but "left all that up to us."
One hour after they arrived, the police entered University Hall to remove the occupiers. The raid shed blood. Police action sent more than 40 students to the emergency rooms of University Health Services and other local hospitals.
The police verbally threatened students. "If you don't stay there I'll break your fuckin' head," one trooper said to a female student.
Several students received cerebral concussions and others suffered fractured bones. One trooper cracked the head of a staff member of the New England Free Press.
This police raid threw the support of the majority of campus behind the SDS demonstrators; before the raid, many students were against the takeover of University Hall.
A standing room crowd at Memorial Church voted that afternoon to begin the historic three-day student "strike" on classes as a protest to the police action.
The faculty, outraged at the arrest of students, voted to drop all criminal charges on April 11.
The conflicts between faculty, students and administrators set off a chain events which would change Harvard forever.
All units of ROTC cancelled their contracts. Harvard got an Afro-American Studies department. And the administration suffered a devastating attack which it had earlier that same year declared to be "impossible" at Harvard.
The Six Demands 1. Abolish ROTC completely by breaking all existing ROTC contracts and not entering into any new ones. 2. Replace all ROTC scholarships with University scholarships. 3. Restore all scholarships to the Paine Hall demonstrators. 4. Roll back rents in Harvard University-owned buildings to the level of January 1, 1968. 5. No destruction of 182 Black and white workers' homes around the Medical School. 6. No destruction of University Road apartments for the construction of the Kennedy School.