The Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) told six parents they could not attend a junior parents weekend panel unless they agreed to put away banners calling for a living wage for Harvard workers.

When the parents of Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) members--holding posters reading "Caution: Social Injustice Zone" and "Act for a Living Wage"--entered Science Center lecture hall B for opening remarks by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68, they were approached by a plainclothes HUPD officer.

The officer told the parents that they had a choice--to put down the signs or leave.

"A cop told me that the dean had required there not be any signs or demonstrations," said Bob Lynn, parent of PSLM member Andrew L. Lynn '02. "He said it was a closed meeting and so they could exclude anybody or anything they want."

Lewis said he did not make such a specific request to HUPD.

"The police were asked in general terms to see that visitors weren't hassled, and if people were carrying signs into the lecture hall, then they made the right judgment call in preventing that," Lewis wrote in an e-mail.

The request did not specifically target PSLM, Lewis writes.

"This wouldn't have been anything to do with this particular group or with this particular event--in general it