Two in custody after Harvard dining hall brawl

Two people were taken into protective custody after a party at Harvard University took a violent turn early yesterday.

University police were called to the Lowell House dining hall between midnight and 2 a.m. after a fight broke out among some of the attendees, according to authorities.

Harvard University officials had few details on what caused the fight or how many people were involved in the violence, but said no one was hurt or arrested.

"They responded to a major disturbance involving some furniture being thrown," Harvard spokesman B. D. Colen said.

The gathering was an "after-party" for the sixth annual "No Half Stepping Benefit Step Show" hosted by the Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers. The show, which started at 7:30 p.m., featured dance teams from several area universities and sold out the 300-seat Lowell Lecture Hall, according to the president of the society, Devin Smith, a Harvard junior.

The event benefited the Young Achievers Science and Mathematics Pilot School in Jamaica Plain, and tickets to the party helped offset the costs, he said in an e-mail.

"The step show after party is usually a lot of fun," Smith wrote in the e-mail. "What happened last night is not representative in the least of our organization and we have never had any problems in the past."

University officials said that between 600 and 700 people attended the party, which was open to anyone with a college ID. After the fight broke out, attendees evacuated into the Lowell House courtyard and eventually out to the street.

"There were so many people," said Harvard sophomore Sara Sollors, who said she was walking home with a friend at about 2 a.m. "I've never seen so many people involved in Harvard's social scene."

In an interview at Harvard yesterday, Sollors said she had "no idea what was going on" when she came upon the chaos of flashing lights, hordes of students, and officers with German shepherds on Mount Auburn Street.

"It was really packed," she said. "My friend and I were just walking down the street and the dogs started barking at us."

Cambridge police and State Police troopers also responded to the fight.

"Two people were taken into protective custody," said Cambridge police spokesman Frank Pasquarello

University officials had not sent out any official communication about the incident as of yesterday afternoon, and rumors were spreading, one student said.

"Rumors are flying that someone got stabbed," said Mike Libert, a Harvard junior. "I definitely saw someone get thrown on the hood of a car and handcuffed. There were a lot of people in the street and it wasn't clear what we were supposed to do."

By noon yesterday, the Lowell House dining hall had been restored to its neo-Georgian elegance with portraits of former Harvard president Abbott Lawrence Lowell and his family looking down on dining students from butter-yellow walls accented by white crown molding. There were no signs of damage to furniture or the crystal chandeliers that dominate the cavernous room.

Lowell House, constructed in 1930 for $3.6 million, is home to 460 undergraduates.