Anti-Registration Organizers Collect 578 Student Signatures

More than 570 Harvard students signed "anti-draft registration forms" during dinner last night, stating their opposition to President Carter's call for a revival of the Selective Service System.

Organizers staffed tables at each Harvard dining hall except Adams House and encouraged students to sign the forms, which will be mailed to Rep. Edward Boland (D-Mass.), chairman of the House subcommittee that will consider appropriations for reviving the draft registration.

Workers at the Freshman Union collected 147 signatures, while 70 Currier House residents and 63 Leverett House residents signed the forms.

Only eight North House residents, 12 Winthrop House residents and 15 Eliot House residents signed the forms.

Anti-draft activists will continue to collect signatures throughout the week, Miriam Clark '80, who organized the drive, said yesterday.

"We expect to easily double the number of signatures," Jamie Raskin '83, another anti-draft organizer, said.

The group has also distributed copies of the form to Brandeis, Tufts, Boston University and the Boston Alliance Against Registration and the Draft.

"I came up with the idea because I think many people wanted to do and say more that 'Hell No, We Won't Go" along with 1000 other people at a rally," Clarke said.

"People around here love to argue, so I thought it would be good to let them develop their line of thinking quietly and reasonably," Clark said. "Anyway, everyone is always saying, 'Write your Congressman,' and this is and institutionalized way to get people to do that," Clarke added.

The forms "helped to raise people's consciousness," Raskin said. "People were talking about it," he added.

Most of the 578 students who signed the forms listed reasons for opposing registration.

Oil Fight, Will You?

"No human life is worth an hour of driving a car," one student wrote. Another called registration "prima facie unconstitutional with a tendency to encourage involvement in brushfire conflicts."

One student explained that "defense of California does not begin in the Hindu Kush," while several responded that they didn't "want to see Kabul."