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Adams House Resident Dean Charles “Chip” Lockwood issued a warning Friday evening to a student who reserved a room in Adams for a meeting of the African and African American Resistance Organization, an unrecognized student group.

Lockwood wrote to Sa’maia J. Evans ’27 that she would be reported to the Harvard College Administrative Board for reserving a room in the Adams House Inn for a March 29 general membership meeting of AFRO.

The Ad Board is the College’s disciplinary body, but dean’s warnings alone do not constitute formal disciplinary action. Lockwood wrote that Evans would also be barred from using the Roombook system to reserve spaces in Adams House for the remainder of the semester.

In the email, Lockwood referred to the College’s student handbook, which states that “non-Harvard or as unrecognized organizations are not permitted to conduct any activity at Harvard even though their activities involve Harvard undergraduates.”

Lockwood also wrote in the email that he had sent Evans a warning earlier this month after she had reserved the same room for a different AFRO event.

He wrote that “any attempt to go forward” with the Saturday meeting would “result in a referral to the Administrative Board” and asked her to notify the Adams House email list that the meeting would not take place.

Evans complied, emailing the list to say that AFRO would not hold a meeting in the room she had booked. But she urged students “interested in talking about the political moment” and Harvard’s response to gather in the Adams House Inn dining hall at the same time as the planned meeting.

“Use student spaces, eat in student dining halls, talk about issues that relate to students, and ensure that the University acts as a university and not a corporation and serves its students,” she wrote, capitalizing the message for emphasis.

Evans also included a screenshot of the dean’s warning and denounced the actions taken against her and AFRO in her email, writing that the group was “being targeted because it is a Black political student organization that threatens the benevolent facade that this University tries to maintain.”

“While ICE and the federal government are literally abducting students off of the street, Chip Lockwood and this University are cancelling roombooks and threatening students with the Ad Board in a moment where we need their protection,” she added.

Lockwood did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening. A College spokesperson declined to comment, citing a policy against commenting on student disciplinary matters.

Evans also wrote in a Friday evening statement that “the issue at hand is that Harvard is weaponizing its policy to punish students for being committed to organizing against the corruption of a University that is complicit in the crimes of the federal administration.”

“We are all students that attend this University, and we have the right to use student spaces to discuss student issues,” she added.

The dispute comes as Harvard comes under increasing pressure to apply strict interpretations of its policies limiting unrecognized organizations. The University is currently facing a lawsuit that alleges Harvard has violated its policies and permitted antisemitism by allowing unrecognized groups, including AFRO, to hold protests on campus.

College Dean Rakesh Khurana said in a Tuesday interview that College policies restrict unrecognized student organizations from accessing Harvard’s resources — including campus spaces.

“Unrecognized student organizations cannot and should not use our resources,” Khurana said. “I would ask any student who believes that there was abuse — or people who were at the event — of our student organization policies to report that to the Dean of Students Office.”

But Evans’ response poses a challenge to House and College administrators looking to crack down on unauthorized events: how to distinguish between spontaneous student gatherings and events organized under the auspices of unrecognized groups.

Last month, AFRO hosted a town hall in Sever Hall, one of Harvard’s academic buildings, to discuss the U.S. Department of Education’s February Dear Colleague letter directing federally funded universities to end all race-based decision-making. The group also held a discussion on affirmative action and reparations in the Adams Inn on March 8.

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.