GSAS Council Creates New Position

The Graduate Student Council voted to modify the council’s constitution to create a new at-large representative position for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in its first meeting of the year Wednesday.

Aside from handling logistical issues, such as filling appointed positions and committees, the meeting was largely geared toward new student involvement in the council. At the end of the meeting, Natural Sciences at-large representative Jack M. Nicoludis, who is also an organizer for the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers, invited students to an information session that union organizers are hosting next week.

The Council voted last November to support students involved in the union movement and voted in April to condemn the University’s joint filing of an amicus brief against graduate student unionization. The National Labor Relations Board decided on Aug. 23 to recognize undergraduate and graduate student research and teaching assistants at private universities as employees with collective bargaining rights.

The ruling came right at the start of the term as new Ph.D. students were arriving to Harvard. Nicoludis said the information session next week is open to all graduate students, but specifically mentioned the influx of new students.

“There’s a lot more visibility of the campaign this semester, so if anybody has any questions we want to be able to answer them in an open format,” Nicoludis said.

Nicoludis said a meeting between union organizers, administrators, and University labor representatives will take place this Friday.

—Staff writer Leah S. Yared can be reached at leah.yared@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @Leah_Yared.