Group Urges A Union For Section Men

A small group of teaching fellows is trying to organize a "union or association" that could negotiate its members salaries with the University.

The group has called an open meeting for Monday night to determine whether a sufficient number of Harvard's 936 teaching fellows, and its prospective teaching fellows, are interested.

"We'd like to see at least 50 people attend," a teaching fellow in Romance Languages said. Instructors and assistant professors are invited as well, she added, but the organizational meeting is intended primarily as a forum for teaching fellows to air their gripes.

Unliveable Wage

"Teaching fellows who have no other means of support feel Harvard does not pay a liveable wage," said one who is also a resident tutor. He claimed that Brandeis, M.I.T., B.U., and other local universities offer far higher pay than Harvard for comparable low-echelon teaching positions.

The sponsoring group hopes that, besides negotiating salaries, the new organization could have a say in determining curriculum, encourage cooperation among its members, and enable them to speak as a group on such university-wide issues as the draft and loyalty oaths.

"Too many grad students and TF's out of insecurity accept the academic status quo of their department, instead of actively suggesting new courses or changes in the requirements," the circular advertising the meeting said.

The same circular stated that since teaching fellow cannot participate in Faculty meetings or in undergraduate student government, they need an outlet for communication with other Harvard organizations. The circular claimed that "a pernicious spirit of competition generally alienates graduate students from each other and their students" and hoped that an association would promote greater co-operation at all levels.

The eight members of the sponsoring group hope that teaching fellows will be able to secure time off for general examinations, a fairer distribution of the teaching load according to financial need, and a mandatory fellowship year near the end of the Ph.D. candidacy -- when a teaching fellow could work on his thesis without having to teach.

The group would also like to seek workman's compensation, especially in the science areas, as well as a tax-exempt status for salaries, an organizer said. She pointed to last year's cyclotron explosion, when several injured teaching fellows received no compensation.

Special Problem

The organizers conceived the meeting three weeks ago at an informal gathering. They discussed problems relating to the special position of the teaching fellow at Harvard, "where he is neither wholly student no Faculty member."

"We know the TF is in a vulnerable position at Harvard and hasn't been going all out trying to change the situation since he's only going to be here three years," the leader of the organization said.

When asked whether a Harvard organization of teaching fellows could be as militant as the one at Berkeley, she replied, "I sure hope so. But let's not talk about strikes now. They require lots of support and teachers don't like to strike.