Over 100 protest planned razing of Smith

Over 100 protesters opposed to the University's proposed demolition of Smith Hall marched through College Green Saturday chanting slogans against the Defense Department, which will provide funding for the planned science facility that is to be built on the Smith Hall site. Most of the marchers were student activists from universities in the Midwest and East attending an annual conference of the Progressive Student Network at the University. Members of PSN's campus affiliate -- the Progressive Student Alliance -- have been active in prior demonstrations against Smith's demolition. Demonstrators gathered at Houston Hall, doned paper skull masks and headed to Smith Hall for the 40-minute protest chanting, "Hey hey, ho ho, DOD has got to go." Most of the students lunching in the midday sun on the Green looked blankly at the demonstrators, some of whom carried signs calling for no U.S. involvement in Cuban affairs, or wore badges proclaiming, "I'm a dyke." Matt Knauer, a 1987 College graduate sitting in front of College Hall, said he thought the protesters had too many causes. "What is this?" Knauer asked. "A random P.C. demonstration?" But his friend, Nina Keenan, said she liked it when people supporting various causes can join together behind one issue. "I'm from the old days," Kennan said. "I like general protests." One marcher put a paper skull mask on the statue of former Provost William Smith which sits at the start of Smith Walk across from the Furness Building. Once at Smith Hall, the students, who came to the University from locales as far away as the University of Illinois, changed their chant to, "Ho ho, hey hey, Smith Hall has got to stay!" A representative from the War Research Information Service and two students from the University told the crowd, which included members of three local news crews, about the history of Smith Hall and the proposal for the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. The University has said in the past that the projects in the proposed Institute will not include weapons research. Administrators said that the University has a rule from the 1960s which does not allow unpublishable research. But the number of the so-called "spin-off" discoveries from military funded research is so small that it does not justify the use of Pentagon funds on college campuses, College sophomore Katy McCabe said. "The saying that technology will save us is becoming less and less true," McCabe told the crowd. One of the protesters said that, while activists at his school have not confronted an issue specifically like Smith Hall, Pentagon-funded research is an issue for all major research universities. "Schools, unfortunately, have been subjugated to the needs of those interests," said Lee Sustar, a graduate student from Columbia University. Following the speeches at Smith Hall, the group marched in a circle around the intersection of 34th and Walnut streets stopping traffic for several minutes and prompting angry motorists from both directions to lean on their car horns. Marchers returned to Houston Hall stopping for moments in front of College Hall and chanting, "Provost Aiken, we're here to say Smith Hall has got to stay."