gil@reed.UUCP (Gil Moskowitz) (01/28/86)
The following is a statement issued by the approxi- mately 100 students currently occupying Eliot Hall, the Reed College administration building. These protesters first occupied the building on Saturday, January 25, after a meet- ing of the Board of Trustees of Reed decided against total divestment from South Africa. _____________________________________________________________ January 27, 1986 _G_O_O_D _M_O_R_N_I_N_G On Saturday, 25 January, a hundred students and alumni occupied Eliot Hall in response to the Board of Trustees' announcement of a decision against divestment. Cooperation would be appreciated in relocating the classes scheduled on the 2nd, 3d, and 4th floors of Eliot, to avoid confusion and minimize the impact of this action on academic activities. Both in and outside of Eliot Hall, we are all members of the Reed intellectual community. The people in the hall have felt from the beginning of this action that the educa- tional process should be affected as little as possible, but large numbers of people entering and leaving the building might jeopardize our ability to reach important consensus decisions concerning the negotiations. Further details will be provided at the information desk in front of Eliot and in mail boxes. Throughout the night the building occupants have worked without knowledge of whether the administration had a viable contingency for relocation of classes, despite repeated attempts to contact them and provide assistance. In case they did not, a number of us spent the night formulating a relocation schedule of our own. This morning, however, it was revealed that they had made preparations, and we have arranged to assist in the relocation. Many of us will be attending classes and going about other business outside of the hall today, and we look for- ward to meeting and talking with our fellow students about any questions they might have on the occupation, the issue of divestment, and the policymaking of the college in gen- eral. _________________________________________________________ End of quoted text. In another statement issued today, the following infor- mation was revealed: _________________________________________________________ Student groups at Stanford, Bates, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, Wesleyan, Lewis and Clark and the D.C. Coali- tion Against Apartheid and Racism have stated their support for our occupation. The American Committee on Africa has stated their total support for our occupation. the AFL/Cio of Oregon has stated their support for divestiture and for actions like ours. State representative Margaret Carter has voiced a similar endorsement. _________________________________________________________ End of quoted text. I have been asked to post this by the occupiers of Eliot Hall. If you have any comments you would like to make to the occupiers, send me _m_a_i_l and I will relay it to them. {decvax, ucbvax, pur-ee, uw-beaver, masscomp, cbosg, aat, mit-ems, psu-cs, uoregon, orstcs, ihnp4, uf-cgrl, ssc-vax}!tektronix +--!reed!gil {teneron, ogcvax, muddcs, cadic, oresoft, grpwre, / harvard, psu-cs, omen, isonvax, nsc-pdc}-------------+ 9 9