Defendants Request Open CRR Hearings

Twenty of the 23 students charged with disrupting the March 26 "Counter-Teach-in" signed a petition yesterday requesting that the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR) grant the petitioners "the opportunity for a public hearing."

Eleven defendants drew up the petition yesterday afternoon at a closed meeting called by SDS in Emerson 310. "To answer these charges we request the opportunity for a public hearing. The issues of these cases concern the entire community. The entire community should be given an opportunity to hear them," the petition states.

The petition also cites Archibald Cox '34, Williston Professor of Law, as criticizing the Columbia Administration in his study, Crisis At Columbia, for refusing its student demonstrators 'a public heading... for an offense allegedly to have been committed in public, where no one's privacy or reputation can be affected."

The 20 defendants will present the petition to the CRR at noon today when the committee convenes to discuss procedural questions connected with the upcoming hearings. The hearings will be held May 6-8 on the tenth floor of Holyoke Center. Donald G. Anderson, chairman of the CRR, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Three Observers

Under the current rules of the CRR, no more than three observers chosen by the defendant and three chosen by his accuser are allowed to attend the hearing. The defendant, however, can tape record the hearing or otherwise make the transcript public.

One defendant, John Pennington '67-4, faces triple charges in connection with the disruption. Both the Students for a Just Peace (SJP) and the Harvard administration filed complaints against Pennington with the CRR. In addition, Cox filed criminal charges against Pennington for disturbing a public assembly.

Pennington is the first student to face criminal charges while still attending Harvard.

According to Cox, the Administration pressed double charges against Pennington because "we have grave doubts about Pennington's status as a student."

Pennington is currently a non-resident student. During the course of the year, he did not take any courses butstudied for his English generals which are scheduled for this Friday.

In other actions connected with the "Counter Teach-in," the University dropped charges against Henry Fetter '71, one of the 24 students originally charged with disrupting the meeting.

The Administration's prosecutor, Vern Countryman, professor of Law, said that he had decided to drop the charge because the lone witness for the Administration changed his mind and decided not to testify.