“I wanted to cry,” Wood said. “I didn’t understand why I was singled out.”

The students said that she wasn’t. They said the chants were only directed at individuals they thought were officers of the University.

“I have no problem with that,” Parker said about his attitude towards the students chanting at top administrators.

Harvard University Police Chief Francis D. “Bud” Riley testified that the students often didn’t know whom they were chanting at in the first few days of the sit-in, as they tried to identify different people within the administration.

But the students said they only used the chant “Shame on you” on one occasion, at Provost Harvey V. Fineberg ’67. They speculated that perhaps the support staff perceived the chant as directed at them, as well.

Riley categorized the sit-in as “genteel” and called the students “nice kids.” He noted that the students sent flowers to the support staff and said he observed them apologizing for the disruption.

Six witnesses were called by the defense and echoed Riley’s sentiments: a lawyer for the AFL-CIO, a dining services union representative, a Mass. Hall custodian, a priest from the United Ministries and three faculty members.

“It was the most extraordinarily civil example of civil disobedience I have ever seen,” Adams House Co-Master Sean Palfrey testified.