The Union Bites The Dust

The Graduate Student and Teaching Fellow Union's open-ended strike began and ended during the past week--but few members of the community seemed to notice.

Organized in three weeks by a 20-member steering committee, the 700-member Union and its strike were conceived as a two-pronged protest against the graduate school's new financial aid policy and against the Administration for instituting the plan over graduate student disapproval.

The nucleus of 20 recruited almost 700 others from a resident graduate student body of about 2000, and launched an open ended strike Monday calling for revisions in the Kraus plan, a guaranteed role in Harvard's educational policymaking, and recognition as the bargaining agent for graduate students.

During four days of high winds, snow flurries and sub-freezing weather, Union members picketed major classroom buildings this week all over campus, urging undergraduates and graduate students to boycott classes in support of Union demands. Class attendance dipped about 30 per cent Monday, but began an upswing Tuesday and returned its normal level on Thursday, the strike's last day.

By Wednesday, graduate students as well as undergraduates were pushing resolutely through the Union's picket lines, and the lines themselves had shrunk to about 130 members--half of Monday's size. On Thursday, they shifted their route to encircle only University and Massachusetts Halls.

The strike had a substantial impact in several departments, however, where teaching fellows successfully closed down large lecture courses or professors agreed to cancel classes for the duration of the strike. All 14 lab instructors in Biology 2, one of the largest pre-med courses, walked off the job and closed down all labs for the week. Three introductory Anthropology lecture courses, most Sociology tutorials, and about half the sections in Economics 10 stopped meeting because of the strike.

Franklin L. Ford, acting dean of the Faculty, said Tuesday, however, that the strike was causing "no serious disruption," and other administrators seemed to concur. Earlier that day, five Union members had attempted to confront President Bok, Ford, and Edward T. Wilcox, acting dean of the GSAS, but Wilcox alone was available and willing to see the delegates.

Wilcox expressed sympathy with the students, but told them that he had no plans to recognize their organization. Later that day, Ford revealed his unwillingness to recognize the Union as an official bargaining agent, and Bok made it three-for-three on Wednesday.

Each of the administrators qualified their non-recognition with claims that they lacked the authority to tamper with the Kraus plan or to recognize the Union. Wilcox and Ford deferred to Bok, while Bok deferred to the Faculty when questioned by Union members Wednesday night at an open discussion on "Teaching in the University." The two deans and Bok overruled Union demands for more scholarship funds with claims that all income from Harvard's endowment has been spent on University operating costs.

At Thursday night's open meeting, no more than 200 Union members turned up to debate future courses of action. Following discouraging reports from Union representatives in almost every GSAS department that Union support had dwindled to near insignificance, the group voted overwhelmingly to return to work, but to remain organized in some form against the Kraus plan. After three hours of cynical and disillusioned proclamations, the Union issued an enthusiastic statement to "proclaim our solidarity" and declared that "we will be back."