Harvard Escalation Week: Day 2

9:19PM

We have just set up our tents, and the banner is looking pretty fine. More importantly, my toes are feeling significantly warmer now that I’ve discovered the wonder of my roommate’s Uggs. Who knows what time HUPD will show up tonight? Interestingly, this will be our first time sleeping out for the second time on the same day of the week – OK, that was confusing. I mean that we slept out last Tuesday and we’re sleeping out again this Tuesday, so we’re wondering if the same officers will be patrolling. We’ve been told that if we refuse to leave when they arrive, we will be arrested. Looking forward to another great sleep out. Can we break 3 hours?

Hm, that was interesting. A man just rode up to our site on a bike asking what we were doing this for. When I told him that we are sleeping out for clean electricity, he responded with “Oh, so you believe Al Gore and the global warming hoax?” He then proceeded to tell me to read up on climate gate and that everyone is lying to me. I didn’t say much back and after a minute or so he rode away.

10:23

Still no sign of HUPD. But there’s a group of guys dressed in camo – and t-shirts at that! They must be cold – who are one by one running up to the John Harvard statue and kissing the foot. That’s kind of gross…don’t they know where that foot has been? But it’s good entertainment while John is on the conference call.

The Next Morning

Answer to “Can we break 3 hours?”: No. HUPD arrived, as expected. It was the same officer as the night before and he was quite friendly.  We look forward to seeing him again tonight!

 

Back Inside

I’m writing this from my bed now, sadly. When 11:30 rolled around with still no sign of HUPD, we thought we were in the clear and started setting up our sleeping bags. I (Eva) went back to my room to brew some cups of Victory Tea, but on my way back to the tent I saw John talking to a HUPD officer and I knew the jig was up. We packed up and headed back inside, but not before a friendly officer gave us some advice on how to do this more effectively. He says we need numbers if we’re going to get the Dean’s attention. Goal for tomorrow: everyone bring 2 friends!

P.S. John is the long unofficial long jump champion, though I say I got just as far.

 

Post 6:Conference Call Excitement!

10:58Our campus coordinator, Eva Roben, just got a text from Nick Dahlberg about an emergency regional conference call at 11. The excitement is palpable. We should have heard back from the Governor about our ask of 100% clean electricity in 10 years some time today. At our meeting several weeks ago, Patrick had seemed receptive, but today was when we got the hard answer. Eva is getting on the call now. Let’s see what happens!

 

Post 5: Foot Races!

Even the Crimson FlyBy reporter joins in!

Spirits are easily kept high with long jump competitions!

10:47: Still no new signs of HUPD.We were all huddled up doing work (I was working on a masterpiece concerning the coastal dune ecosystems of cape cod) and we were getting freezing. Solution: Footraces. It is 41, and feels like 34 (according to weather.com). We need to keep moving. So we read some pages, nd then race to the nearest tree. I am proud to annouce that I am currently the undisputed short run champion, with honorable mentions going to Eva Roben (our campus coordinator) and Sophia Wen (New Schools coordinator). We still have yet to crown a champion of the long jump, but more on the situation as it develops.

 

Post 4: We’re Famous

10:22 This is kind of meta, but I am currently talking with Stephanie from the Flyby Blog of the Harvard Crimson (our big newspaper here) *she’s taking our pictures right now*. We’ve had some good coverage in the Crimson and were even picked up by U.S. News & World Report. There have definitely been passerbyers who have made “its the sleep-out people” comments as they’ve gone by. While most don’ know that other campuses are sleeping out every night, as we have not been able to sleep out every night, they do know about the sunday sleepouts and are pretty supportive. We’re hoping to really turn out a big number for this Sunday. Still no HUPD.

 

Post 3: HUPD sighting

10:07: We have our first HUPD sighting. Two officers on patrol on the far side of the yard. Didn’t notice us and they disappeared behind University hall. I don’t think they’ll be back for a little while, but they are out, about, and looking to kick us out.

 

 

Post 2 from Harvard

9:47 Still no cops and we are looking good. Standing/sitting around and playing ghost. A couple of people have stopped, one was our Thursday night sit coordinator, a position that disappeared once we failed to get permission from the University and got threatened by Harvard University Police (HUPD). we got our banner and things are going well. This is how it tends to go. A lot of sitting around working/talking until HUPD shows up around 1030 and shoos us off. I just think its  a real shame that Harvard University, which makes such a big deal of being green, “Green is the Crimson” and all that, is unwillng to let its students sleep out and support real change in Massachusetts that would help it in its own goal of being more environmentally friendly and reduce its own carbon footprint.
Whatever. We’ve got Europe’s “The Final Countdown” playing. Lets see what they got.

 

Live Blog from the Harvard Sleepout

9:16 PM: the harvard sleepout is under way!  while we don’t have a permit to sleep out in front of University hall in the Yard, in this final week of the campaign we have decided to sleep out and see what Harvard University Police decide to do each night of the week. Its a little chilly but we’re still going to set up our tents and rock out! Rocking out, sleeping out.