Corporation Silent About ROTC; Students Protest Outside Meeting

The Harvard Corporation met yesterday and considered the Faculty's proposal to withdraw academic credit from ROTC courses here. But after the daylong meeting, none of the Corporation members would reveal what--if any--decision they had made.

The Corporation--formally, the President and fellows of Harvard College--has final power to negotiate ROTC contracts with the Defense Department. Although several of the Corporation members admitted that the credit-withdrawal proposal--passed by the Faculty of Feb. 4--was discussed at the meeting, none would disclose whether the Corporation had decided to ratify the proposal.

Some 100 student protestors clustered outside Massachusetts Hall as the Corporation gathered there for its regular biweekly meeting. Leaders of the anti-ROTC demonstration had scheduled it to begin at 9:45--before the Corporation's normal 10 a.m. meeting time. Yesterday, however, the Corporation began its meeting at 9:30 a.m. and student plans to give Corporation members leaflets as they entered the building failed.

Some of the demonstrators carried anti-ROTC signs and chanted "Abolish ROTC" and "ROTC Must Go." The only apparent reaction to the demonstration came when a passing student ripped down two signs that had been stapled to the Mass. Hall door.