Space Occupants

Thanks mainly to posts by Prof. Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit and Joel Pollak on BigGovernment.com, this blog has gotten surprisingly heavy attention and has attracted a sizable number of comments.  Given that interest, and feeling a continuing obligation to update the 99.999995% of the world’s population currently barred from access to Harvard Yard, I stopped by the “encampment” around 8:40 a.m. this morning to see how the so-called “occupation” was going.

Thus I can now report that “Occupy Harvard” has officially achieved the status of “World’s Smallest Occupation.”  Whereas Saturday morning it was, technically, a non-occupation (with 2 photographers, 2 cops, 0 occupants), today the score is:  2 photographers, 1 cop, 1 occupant.  Need proof?  Here are the photos:

Photo 1 features the 2 photographers (including me), plus the lone occupant (a woman sitting at the info desk, in a blue jacket, just to the left of the dark blue tent — click on photo for full-screen version):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo 2, slightly wider shot, showing all the tents:

 

 

 

 

 

Photo 3, closeup of the woman at the info desk (note there’s much less food available than on the morning of Day 3 — compare this photo and, if you’re interested, read this reader comment about Occupy Harvard’s initial stock of “eco apples” and Pepperidge Farm soft cookies):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo 4, another closeup of the lone occupant, from the left rear:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo 5, wide shot from the same angle, documenting no visible occupants except for the woman at the info desk:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo 6, long-distance shot looking east toward the John Harvard statue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to 2 photographers and 1 occupant, there was a member of the staff of Securitas (the contractor that handles routine security for Harvard; unlike on Day 3, I didn’t see any yellow-jacketed Harvard University Police Department officers in the immediate vicinity, a further indication that at this point there aren’t many actual “occupiers” to worry about).  Here’s a picture of her:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thus, when I visited, the lone occupant of “Occupy Harvard” was outnumbered 3 to 1 by photographers and security personnel.

The Securitas officer seemed to be keeping a careful eye on the “encampment”:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I asked her whether she’d seen anyone using the tents.  She said no.  Of course, she’s not on duty 24/7.  However, the strong impression around this place that all the tents are empty, pretty much all the time, is reflected by today’s Harvard Crimson, which on page A6 features a photograph of the tents, with no occupants in sight, underneath which is a caption reading:  “The tents, now empty, once boasted around 60 inhabitants.” To see that page, click here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My last photo taken around the “encampment” was of the announcement board, which indicated that the next “General Assembly” of Occupy Harvard will be held at 6 p.m. tonight (note that on the board Occupy Harvard is claiming today is Day 6 of the occupation, evidently based on the idea that Wednesday night starting at 10:30 p.m. should be counted as a full “day”; this blog will use the the Crimson‘s approach which counted Thursday as Day 1):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently the “General Assembly” is open to anyone who wants to attend.  Maybe I’ll attend tonight.

Given that by now, Day 5, it’s pretty obvious to pretty much everyone that “Occupy Harvard” is a failure, because for much of the time either no one, or just one person, is actually occupying this site despite it being crammed with 26 tents designed to sleep 60, Occupy Harvard has a huge public relations problems:  even though virtually none in the movement are committed enough to actually occupy the site, the presence of the “encampment” is inconveniencing thousands of Harvard students, faculty, and staff each day, and barring hundreds of tourists each day from seeing Harvard Yard.  That problem is reflected on the lead story in today’s Harvard Crimson (for online version, including reader comments, click here):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the imposition on the Harvard community caused by the “occupation” forces who are too lazy to actually occupy the site in any meaningful way.

Outside of south gate, on Massachusetts Ave.:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside the same gate:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside the north gate, facing the Science Center (the gate the Occupy Harvard mob stormed on Wednesday night):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Closeup of a Cambridge police officer assigned to the north gate (I doubt many would-be occupiers will try muscling past this guy):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside the north gate, facing out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same vantage point, while passing through the gate,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did find one positive bit of news amidst the ruins of the “Occupy Harvard” movement:  someone is trying to make a buck off it, demonstrating that capitalism is alive and well even at Harvard.  The Harvard student group in charge of merchandise sales for the upcoming Harvard-Yale game, which this year will be played at Yale, is selling “Occupy Yale” t-shirts which read on the back, “We are the 6.2%” (bragging of Harvard’s low acceptance rate of applicants, which is evidently lower than Yale’s).

Here are a couple of photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update (11/15):  News coverage of the t-shirts can be found at Gawker and Fox, among other outlets.  T-shirts can be ordered online here.

–“Major Tom”

 

This entry was posted on Monday, November 14th, 2011 at 5:25 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.