Graduate Students Postpone Action; Union to Investigate Harvard Policies

The Graduate Students and Teaching Fellows Union--after shutting down classroom activity yesterday with a work stoppage--voted last night to establish a Union Commission to investigate recent University policies.

The Union passed, by a vote of 57 to 41, a motion to have the commission hold open hearings April 11-15 and subpoena members of the Administration to explain their decisions. The motion specified that the hearings were investigations and not negotiations.

The Union also passed overwhelmingly a resolution to establish a committee to prepare for further action after vacation, including a possible strike.

The motion to establish the committee also called on the Union to give detailed consideration to the demands raised by certain groups in the University before taking any vote on further action.

The turbulent meeting of over 200 Union members in Lowell Lecture Hall also voted to prepare a detailed written account of its position to be sent to all members of the Faculty.

Motion Defeated

The Union defeated a motion to send a letter to President Bok and Dean Dunlop demanding that they recognize the Union and enter into negotiations with it by April 13 or face a meeting of the Union to consider a strike vote. The vote on that motion was 75 to 45; an earlier vote had tied 84 to 84.

The three and one-half hour meeting adjourned after a quorum call failed to produce the necessary 104 members present. Another meeting was called for Thursday, April 13 at a place to be determined.

Over 500 members of the Union--which now claims 1035 members--and several hundred undergraduates picketed and leafletted 18 buildings yesterday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. A Union spokesman claimed that class attendance was off 80 to 85 per cent.

The Union also passed an amendment to its provisional constitution last night stating that: "It is the premise of this Union that we actively oppose all forms of discrimination within this University by race, sex, religion, national origin, or political belief."

Mahmood Mamdani, a member of the Union steering committee, explained the work stoppage at a press conference yesterday morning: "In terms of going directly to the Administration, we have done that. It seemed reasonable to us to have people take a day off from work now in order to insure that their educational work does not suffer in the future."