Gazette To Publish New Supplement

Officials of the University personnel office and the Harvard Gazette have published an experimental joint supplement to the administration's weekly newspaper, in what organizers call "an effort to improve communications between the University and the non-teaching employees."

The first issue of "Trial Balloon," which appeared in yesterday's Gazette, contained news of Harvard personnel policies and features about employees written by staff members in the news and personnel offices.

"We have a sense from the questions we get that important information is not getting to the personnel," Loretta Stokes, assistant manager of personnel services, said yesterday.

Leaders of movements to unionize Harvard employees have long complained of a lack of communication between the University and its employees, Edward W. Powers, associate general counsel for employee relations, said yesterday.

The University is "not persuaded that organization is the way to solve the problem of communication," Powers said. "This insert in the Gazette is one of the other ways that we are trying," he added.

The personnel office is financing the extra four pages during the trial period, Joe D. Porter, an employee of the Public Information Office, said yesterday.

The organizers are planning to publish a second supplement some time in January. They will then evaluate the project's success, Porter said.

"If the section gets pulled out and saved, if it gets readership, then we will continue it," Deane W. Lord, director of public information, said yesterday.

Of the 15 non-teaching Harvard employees contacted yesterday said they had not noticed that the latest issue of the Gazette contained a new supplement. Most, however, said they thought the supplement was a good idea.

"It's not too often you see stuff in the Gazette that's interesting to employees who aren't in the faculty," Linda M. Fowler, a secretary in custodial services, said yesterday.