Word: petitioners
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In the spring of 1960, 1,359 members of the Harvard faculty signed a petition encouraging the Eisenhower administration to consider banning nuclear testing in the United States, according to a Crimson article from May 16 of the same year. The petition, which was telegraphed to Washington, preceded an upsurge...
According to the Crimson article, after 24 faculty members signed the petition, it was mailed to about 4,000 Harvard Corporation appointees, which included consultants in addition to faculty members. Ninety percent of those who responded added their names to the petition.
According to History of Science Professor Everett Mendelsohn, who said he had supported the faculty petition, the concerns about testing were twofold. “One was that the increased input of radiation into the atmosphere could be harmful,” he said.
For some Harvard students, the appearance of the petition in the spring of 1960 barely caused a stir.
“Did the [faculty] petition cause the signing? No. But I think that that petition and others at other places brought that forward,” Mendelsohn said.