TF Leaders Meet to Plan New Strategy

The steering committee of the proposed organization of teaching fellows last night decided to recommend that the group call itself a federation, and that it deal with such issues as teaching fellows' wages and problems of graduate and undergraduate education.

After a rundown of sentiment in each department indicated that most teaching fellows would be unwilling to join a "union"" or strike to achieve their demands, the committee voted to recommend the term "federation" to the Feb. 15 general membership meeting.

The committee apparently favored a loose form of organization rather than immediate recourse to unionism. Several members of the committee, composed of representativs chosen at departmental meetings of teaching fellows, said that potential supporters might be alienated by a militant approach.

On specific issues, the committee voted to recommend that the organization take up financial issues -- both wages and work load -- on an interdepartmental basis.

Pacifying Proviso

The committee favored dealing with graduate education by individual departments. Though it voted to deal with undergraduate education interdepartmentally, the committee added that its proposals would take the form of suggestions. This proviso was apparently intended to allay Faculty fears that the teaching fellows might try to dictate the form and content of undergraduate courses.

After the danger of driving away potential backing was raised again, the committee tabled the question of whether the new organization should concern itself with general political issues such as the draft or the Vietnam war.

Peter B. Bloch, teaching fellow at the Law School, told the committee that the organization would have difficulty getting an election to have itself designated the official bargaining agent for the College's 900 teaching fellows.

Bloch said that neither the National Labor Relations Board nor the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission ordinarily took jurisdiction over "charitable organizations" -- a category, Bloch said, which would probably include Harvard