Hunger

Students who have occupied the president's office at Clark University for the last nine days yesterday presented to the economics department proposals for increased Marxist instruction, John T. Reynolds, professor of Microbiology and a member of an ad hoc faculty negotiating panel, said yesterday.

Reynolds said that students have dropped original demands of tenure for Alan F. Gummerson, as assistant professor of Economics, whom students claim was denied tenure last year because he included Marxist material in his courses.

Instead, proposals centered on student demands that the Economics Department retain Gummerson in some capacity without tenure and offer "some guarantee that Marxism will be retained in the curriculum," Reynolds said.

According to Reynolds, about 40 students are participating in the sit-in and at least three students are continuing a hunger strike begun Monday to protest the school's alleged lack of initiative in negotiations.

"There is no way that the University can or will respond to demands during a sit-in or hunger strike," Morton H. Appley, president of Clark, said yesterday.

Although Appley said that discussions were making progress, Reynolds said that he forsees no resolution to the conflict within the next few days.