But yesterday’s visit was greeted by relatively little protest on campus, partly due to a security perimeter that stretched from Allston to this side of the river.

Some members of a movement known as the Falon Gong were the only protesters gathered outside the entrance to Burden Hall.

And University Spokesperson Joe Wrinn told the Associated Press that “85 protesters took to a nearby street, protesting China’s human rights record and its policies on Taiwan and Tibet...Several dozen counterprotesters also hailed Wen’s visit.”

Meghan C. Howard ’04, the student who interrupted the address, said she snuck the Tibetan flag past security in her pants, because she was confident they wouldn’t search there, and waited for the right moment to make her demonstration. When Wen spoke of his love for “his people,” she said, she moved.

“I just thought, ‘The Tibetan people don’t consider themselves to be his people,’” she said.

Howard was escorted from the event when she refused to cooperate with police, who asked her to sit down and stop disturbing the event, according to HUPD Spokesperson Steven G. Catalano.

Wen responded to the act by stating, “I will not be disrupted because I am deeply convinced that the three hundred million American people have friendly feelings towards the Chinese people.”

Howard later said she thought Wen’s remark missed the point of her protest.

“I don’t have negative feelings toward China, and especially not the Chinese people,” she said. “Obviously you just don’t care about the Tibetans if you’re going to commit genocide and all the other things that go on in Tibet.”

It is unclear whether Howard will be disciplined for her actions.

As of last night, Howard said she had not been contacted by any university officials about disciplinary actions, although the police did tell her they would be submitting a report to the Administrative Board.

“We have incidents over the course of the year which involve students, where the info is forwarded to the College and then often times the College will take appropriate action through the Administrative Board,” Catalano said.

But he would not definitively comment on whether such a report was filed in this instance.

And though foreign news service Agence France-Presse reported that “university officials said she would be brought before a disciplinary committee for disrupting the event,” University spokespeople said they had no knowledge of whether any such action would be taken.

For now, Howard is sitting tight.

“I don’t know how it works...I’ve never been in trouble before,” she said. “I think it was embarrassing enough for [Harvard] that they’re not going to let me go that easily.”

—Staff writer Nathaniel A. Smith contributed to the reporting of this story.