Word: harvard
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Middlesex District Court found John Berg guilty of criminal trespass for being inside University Hall during the protest against the Cambridge Project this September. Berg's conviction shows that the Committee of Fifteen seriously intends to compel students separated or dismissed last spring to stay off Harvard property...
...University has tried to justify bringing a criminal charge against Berg in two ways. Dean May argues that Berg's presence on Harvard property endangered the safety of University officers. James Q. Wilson, spokesman for the Committee of Fifteen says instead that when Berg was "separated" last spring the University meant to deny him both the right to register for classes and the right to associate with the Harvard community. Berg had to be kept off the campus. Wilson says, to show the gravity of his offense last year...
Neither rationale is convincing. The threat of a criminal trespass charge will hardly stop anyone from assulating a Harvard dean. Denying a student the right to register is itself a harsh punishment since it guarantees entry into Nixon's army raffle. More importantly. in keeping Berg and the other separated students off the campus with criminal sanction, the Committee of Fifteen is threatening values as important to the Harvard community as the safety of its members...
...with a criminal penalty. Ordinarily the University has not prosecuted members of the public who demonstrate on its property if no academic complaint is going to be brought against the students involved. In the Cambridge Project demonstration, however, Berg was the only person disciplined. Several lawyers have questioned whether Harvard can arbitrarily exclude a particular member of the public from a demonstration or meeting generally open to public attendance without violating Constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process. It is not clear that Harvard can constitutionally single out Berg for special criminal liability solely because of an academic penalty...
...decision to prosecute Berg is that it limits the right of faculty and students to bring guests to the campus-both for demonstrations and for discussion and meetings. As the Committee of Fifteen now interprets its decision of last April, no student separated or dismissed last spring can visit Harvard-even if invited by a student or Faculty member-unless he secures permission from the Committee. Although there is no question of the University's right to determine who may register for classes, neither the University nor any committee should have the power to decide who may associate with...