No Layoffs Campaign

Feb 9 - Rally Against Layoffs!

2012-01-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

NO LAYOFFS! -

5 PM, THURS, FEB 9, Holyoke Ctr.
1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 (next to Au Bon Pain). Redline to Harvard Square.

Who do they think they are?! Even in this bleak economy, Harvard University, a taxfree
‘non-profit’, has managed to retain $32 billion (in addition to other income), yet
it is putting people out of work and plans to lay off more. Layoffs are a burden to our
local economy where people are already struggling and where Harvard has not been
a good neighbor. Harvard is in a privileged financial position where laying off staff
is not necessity but greed. Stand with Harvard workers and community members
against these destructive plans which will devastate many families and hurt the entire
community. Rally to oppose layoffs!

5 PM, THURS, FEB 9, Holyoke Ctr.
1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 (next to Au Bon Pain). Redline to Harvard Square.
Contact harvardnolayoffs@gmail.com for more information.

If you oppose layoffs at Harvard University, please send an email protest.

--------------------------------------Email Harvard Labor Relations------------------------------------
Tell them that when Harvard doesn’t pay taxes and then puts people out of work they are hurting the local economy of your community! Tell them that you support everyone doing their fair share during difficult economic times. Harvard workers greatly appreciate this support. Thank you for sending emails to oppose the University’s plans!

Address emails to: bill_murphy@harvard.edu, (he is the Director of Labor Relations for Harvard University).
cc: harvardnolayoffs@gmail.com

Sample text: I oppose Layoffs in the Harvard Libraries. A University should be protecting these services, and especially one with the enormous resources of Harvard should not be turning people out on the street. Laying off workers when there is still so much money available (in part because of a special tax-free status) is damaging my local economy for no other reason than greed. Please do not do this. The community does not support it.

Emergency No Layoffs Picket Called on One Day's Notice

2012-01-26T09:08:00.002-05:00

University Library Workers Protest Layoffs

By Dan Dou, Radhika Jain, and Samuel Y. Weinstock, CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Published: Thursday, January 26, 2012

Since Harvard University Library announced last week that its upcoming reorganization would include downsizing staff, workers have circulated several petitions against the layoffs and picketed on Wednesday outside of a regularly scheduled meeting for library staff members.

Roughly 20 people participated in Wednesday’s protest, which took place during a meeting that was meant to allow library workers to express their concerns, according to a University spokesperson.

“Today’s conversation provided an opportunity to address some misconceptions, and it was made clear that staff members are not being asked to reapply for their jobs,” the spokesperson said in an email, referring to a rumor that circulated among workers last week. “The remainder of the meeting focused on how Library staff can prepare to play a role in the new organization.”

Last Thursday, officials told library staff at three town hall meetings that the library’s planned restructuring may include voluntary and involuntary reductions in staff size. The library board met on Tuesday to consider a formal plan for the reorganization, but, despite requests, the University has not released details on whether any plan was approved. If the library board passed a proposal, it would be reviewed by University President Drew G. Faust in February.

Geoffrey “Geoff” Carens, a library employee and member of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, said that the timetable for the impending decisions demands a stronger response in addition to the union’s negotiations.

“We may not have a ton of time,” Carens said. “The cuts are supposed to come in July. We want to strike while the iron is hot.”

Aryt Alasti, a security guard who is a member of Service Employees International Union, said the library workers’ union was not doing enough to fight potential layoffs.

While SEIU represents security guards and custodians, HUCTW represents clerical and technical workers, including library staff.

“Unfortunately, the HUCTW leadership does not support such actions as this [protest], historically and philosophically,” Alasti said. “They prefer to, from my standpoint, negotiate until failure, and that’s the end of that.”

Desiree Goodwin, a library assistant at the Frances Loeb Library in Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, has spearheaded the circulation of two petitions: one that urges general support for academic librarians and a second that demands an immediate firm stance by Bill Jaeger, the director of HUCTW, against layoffs. More than 120 people had signed the two petitions as of Wednesday evening.

Occupy Harvard members are currently drafting a third petition, targeting the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body.

Goodwin, who has been employed by the University for 16 years, said the news of potential downsizing was “dropped on us like a bombshell.”

Goodwin said that despite regular meetings before the transition plan was announced, neither union leadership nor library supervisors had advance warning of the potential downsizing.

“We were all invited to these discussions as if we were part of the process,” she said. “It’s not that we object to modernization, streamlining procedure. It’s the structure being imposed on us—and the pace.”

The University spokesperson said that Harvard will work with HUCTW, in compliance with the union’s contract. She declined to specify when such a meeting would take place.

In Goodwin’s view, the purpose of the layoffs is “maximizing Harvard’s profit margin.”

“This is not about creating the best library system in the country,” she said.

—Staff writer Dan Dou can be reached at ddou@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Radhika Jain can be reached at radhikajain@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Samuel Y. Weinstock can be reached at sweinstock@college.harvard.edu.

Proposed Staff Cuts Anger Library Workers

2012-01-25T10:34:00.000-05:00

Proposed Staff Cuts Anger Library Workers

By Samuel Y. Weinstock and Justin C. Worland , CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Published: Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The University’s plans to reduce the size of the Harvard University Library workforce drew criticism Tuesday from library workers and the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers. Library officials informed employees of the University's exploration of a range of both voluntary and involuntary options in a series of town hall meetings last Thursday.

“The announcement that the library workforce ‘will be smaller than it is now’ and that some of these potential reductions will be involuntary, combined with the lack of answers to critical questions was alarming and ill-conceived,” read an email to members of HUCTW, which represents many library employees. “For many, the overall effect was panic-inducing.”

The union plans to address the issue by discussing the potential cuts in greater detail with library leaders and meeting with members to assess their reactions, according to the email.

HUCTW Director Bill Jaeger said that his union is concerned primarily with the lack of information provided by the University about the size and nature of the potential layoffs. The presentation of the plans, he said, was “extraordinarily clumsy” and left many major questions unanswered.

Library employees also expressed confusion over the details of the plan. The uncertainty has led many employees to begin speculating on the size of the cuts, according to Karen L. O’Brien, a library assistant.

“All of Harvard Library staff have just effectively been fired,” read one tweet that circulated on Thursday after the first town hall had begun.

Others suggested that the restructuring would require that all library employees reapply to keep their current positions.

The University strongly refuted this statement but recommended that all employees file an Employee Profile “to state job preferences, to articulate skills, and to provide a resume.”

Although he said that the University is currently only providing “vague” explanations, Jaeger is confident that HUCTW will be able to speak with transition leaders. As a part of the union’s contract, Harvard must consult with HUCTW and seriously consider alternative options before laying off a single member, he said.

But HUCTW’s response was insufficient for some union members who gathered on Tuesday afternoon to take a more aggressive stance against the plan for a smaller workforce.

The meeting, which included representatives from the Student Labor Action Movement and Occupy Harvard, concluded with a plan to picket University forums on library reform beginning Wednesday.
For this small, committed group of activists, preparing for a larger campaign would start with reaching out to other employees. Eventually, workers could resort to large demonstrations or another occupation of the campus, said Geoffrey “Geoff” Carens, an assistant librarian and HUCTW member.

“It’s going to get as big as it needs to be,” Carens said. “This is the seed, and we’re hoping for a mighty tree.”

Library employees who attended Tuesday’s meeting expressed frustration with both the plan to cut the workforce and how the University informed employees. At Thursday’s meeting, library officials were unable to answer many of the audience’s questions and did not provide details about the scale of the staff reductions. That information, employees were told, would come in February.

O’Brien said she believes that the University is purposefully stoking fear among the library employees in hopes that they will hurriedly accept unattractive retirement packages.

Regardless of their thoughts about the University’s intentions, many other employees expressed a fear of the upcoming changes.

“I can’t believe I feel as insecure in my job as I did before we had the union,” said Jeffrey Booth, a library assistant who said he has worked at Harvard for 25 years. “We’re already short-staffed. When my friends and coworkers get laid off, I get physically sick. That’s how it affects you.”

The Harvard Library Board, which is responsible for planning the library’s restructuring, met Tuesday to discuss the plan. If approved, it will be considered by University President Drew G. Faust.
The University did not return repeated requests for comment on this article. Harvard Library

Executive Director Helen Shenton did not respond through a spokesperson.

—Staff writer Samuel Y. Weinstock can be reached at sweinstock@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.

Library System Seeks to Reduce Staff

2012-01-24T16:30:00.001-05:00

Library System Seeks to Reduce Staff

By Justin C. Worland , CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Published: Monday, January 23, 2012

The Harvard University Library system will seek to reduce the size of its approximately 930 person workforce as part of the ongoing restructuring of the world’s largest academic library, according to a transcript of remarks made by Harvard University Library Executive Director Helen Shenton at one of three town hall meetings held Thursday.

“The new organizational design has not yet been approved, but it is certain that it will be different from the current one,” said Shenton at one of the town hall meetings. “A key change: the Library workforce will be smaller than it is now.”

The University is considering both voluntary and involuntary options to reduce staff, but prefers voluntary methods, Shenton said. While Harvard has laid off employees in the past, the University has at times also offered some staff voluntary early retirement packages or waited for attrition to reduce staff.

University Librarian Robert C. Darnton ’60 told The Crimson in the fall that the restructuring would aim to make the libraries more efficient.

“We are consolidating the libraries in a way that will save money, and that money saved will be plowed back into acquisitions and expanded services,” Darnton said at the time. “It will make the library much stronger.”

After the University consolidates multiple libraries, some positions will be redundant.
Staff reductions will be necessary due to this overlap, according to a University spokesperson.
“There are opportunities to become a more effective and more efficient organization,” the spokesperson said. “Many of the changes will come in areas where there are currently duplicate efforts.”

Prior to Thursday’s meetings, rumors and speculation circulated amongst library employees about the implications of the library restructuring.

“All of Harvard library staff have just effectively been fired,” read one tweet that circulated on Thursday after the first town hall had begun.

Others suggested that the restructuring would require that all library employees reapply to keep their current positions.

The University strongly refuted this statement, but recommended that all employees file an Employee Profile “to state job preferences, to articulate skills and to provide a resume.”

Still, library officials left many other questions unanswered, according to Director of Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers Bill Jaeger.

“There were vague references made to reductions in the size of the staff,” said Jaeger. “Despite persistent questions from the audience the [library] leaders were not able or willing to provide anything more specific than that.”

Though Jaeger said that he does not see the rationale for staff cuts, he recommended that the University employ “more enlightened” voluntary methods if staff is to be reduced.

“Our contract with the University requires union–management consultation when a department is considering [such changes],” Jaeger said. “We’re pretty confident that as this goes forward we’ll continue to hear from them.”

The staff reduction comes as part of a larger reorganization of library personnel that will be presented for approval next week to the Library Board, the body overseeing the library’s long-term transformation.

The Board is then responsible for presenting the plan to University President Drew G. Faust.
The University chose to share the decision to reduce staff despite the lack of the details to encourage a dialogue between Library officials and employees, according to a University spokesperson.
Pending the plan’s acceptance, more detailed explanations of the organizational changes will be revealed during library staff meetings in February.

—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.

Crimson Op-Ed: No Layoffs for Harvard Libraries

2012-01-24T09:31:00.000-05:00

No Layoffs for Harvard Libraries
By Geoff Carens
Published: Tuesday, January 24, 2012

On January 19, Harvard University Library Executive Director Helen Shenton told stunned Harvard Library staff that their numbers were to shrink. She announced that the cuts would be accomplished by July, through voluntary and involuntary means. Officials would rewrite some job descriptions and eliminate other jobs completely, and staffers would have to apply for a smaller number of reconfigured positions.

In the wake of media attention to widely shared tweets about Shenton’s disclosures, a University spokesperson tried to downplay the anxieties of employees. Despite such efforts, Shenton’s remarks are sparking a new wave of worker-led protests on the Harvard campus.

When the University’s clerical staffers last faced mass layoffs in 2008, their Harvard No Layoffs Campaign drew the attention of national and international press. In collaboration with Harvard’s Student Labor Action Movement, rank-and-filers in the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers joined forces with concerned local residents, faculty, non-union workers and members of other campus unions also hit hard by job losses. The coalition organized a sustained wave of demonstrations, which featured picketers blocking traffic in Harvard Square, as well as multiple actions during the University’s lavish Commencement exercises. Today, activists will meet to plan a revival of the Harvard No Layoffs Campaign.

During its last wave of mass layoffs, Harvard maintained, unpersuasively, that a drop in its huge endowment made job losses inevitable. After a 21.4 percent jump in the endowment during the last fiscal year, to $32 billion, Harvard cannot possibly make any such claims today. Union activists believe the University’s plans to cut costs come at the expense of local communities. In a particularly ominous development, 15 out of 22 employees at Harvard Health Publications learned on January 11 that they would lose their jobs in March. The devastated staffers of HHP must wonder how they will find new positions in the current bleak economy. As of last week, library workers must wonder the same thing.

However, since 2008, the ground has shifted. The Occupy Wall Street movement has pointed a glaring spotlight at social inequalities, the concentration of wealth, and widespread unemployment. Harvard’s workers have actively participated in Occupy Boston and Occupy Harvard. Important links have been built, and potentially powerful networks have risen up. Employees who stayed on the sidelines of past years’ pickets now boldly advocate direct action to fight the planned cuts. No Layoffs campaigners know they will have many more allies this time around.

They will also have student support. SLAM has supported Harvard’s workers for years. The pro-labor students in SLAM went on a hunger strike in 2007 to press for a fair contract for security officers. Its precursor, the Progressive Student Labor Movement, occupied Massachusetts Hall in 2001, demanding a living wage for all who worked at the University. SLAM’s current incarnation, as vibrant as ever, plays a vital auxiliary role in campus labor struggles. As recently as December, scores of workers and SLAM members picketed for over an hour in the cold for Marvin Byrd. Byrd, a 61 year old, partially-disabled employee in Harvard University Mail Services, had his weekly hours cut and was compelled to work a mandatory six-day week, alone of all his co-workers. SLAM’s participation on Byrd’s behalf helped make the action one of the largest worker-led pickets for an individual Harvard employee in recent memory. If hundreds of library workers face the total loss of their livelihoods, they can expect a proportionate response from the students who have stood with them for so many years in their struggle for better working conditions.

Meanwhile, library workers continue to perform their duties, knowing that another year of job losses would certainly hurt scholarship on campus. More automation, increased outsourcing to non-Harvard vendors, and further erosion of institutional memory will throw countless roadblocks in the way of the students, faculty and researchers who use Harvard’s libraries. Harvard’s brand will suffer along with workplace morale. The precious scholarly resources amassed by Harvard, including online databases, will grow less accessible. These unnecessary consequences are a source of great frustration to dedicated employees. If Shenton’s destructive plans go forward, campus workers will soon have myriad opportunities to vent that frustration in public.

Geoff Carens is a Union Representative in the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers and a member of the No Layoffs Campaign. He is a Library Assistant at Lamont Library.

Harvard Libraries Announce Unspecified Number of Layoffs

2012-01-20T16:01:00.000-05:00

Libraries May Reduce Staff

By Justin C. Worland , CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Harvard University Library employees were informed Thursday at three town hall meetings that the ongoing restructuring of the world’s largest academic library system may result in a reduction in staff, according to people briefed on the meetings.

Prior to Thursday’s meetings, rumors abounded about the implications of the library restructuring on the size of the library staff.

Twitter was abuzz with speculation leading up to Thursday’s meetings and even during them. “All of Harvard library staff have just effectively been fired,” read one tweet.

The University announced in the fall that it would reorganize the libraries into affinity groups to bring together library units with similar missions.

“We are consolidating the libraries in a way that will save money, and that money saved will be plowed back into acquisitions and expanded services,” University Librarian Robert C. Darnton ’60 told The Crimson at the time. “It will make the library much stronger.”

Library leaders said that they were seeking a “smaller library” in Thursday’s meetings but left many questions unanswered, according to Bill Jaeger, director of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers.

“There were vague references made to reductions in the size of the staff,” Jaeger said. “Despite persistent questions from the audience, the [library] leaders were not able or willing to provide anything more specific than that.”

Afterward, the University sought to dispel the rumor that all library personnel would be affected by the likely downsizing.

“It is inaccurate to say that all Library staff will need to reapply for their positions,” a statement from the University said.

“Our contract with the University requires union-management consultation when a department is considering [such changes],” Jaeger said. “We’re pretty confident that as this goes forward we’ll continue to hear from them.”

According to a University statement, staff meetings in February will be held to explain the organizational changes in more detail.

—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.

Dining Hall Workers Rally During Contract Negotiations

2011-05-13T15:42:00.000-04:00

Dining Hall Workers Rally in The Yard

By MERCER R. COOK, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

KEREN E. ROHE

Yale University dining hall workers and students join their Harvard counterparts for a union demonstration in Harvard Square on Thursday night. The protest followed a meeting and discussion and a negotiation session between Unite Here Local 26 and the University.

Harvard dining hall workers, students and Unite HERE members from across New England marched through the Yard Thursday night holding signs and chanting “we want justice” and “union power.”

The march ended in the area outside of the Holyoke Center where the crowd sung a version of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” with lyrics adapted for the union.

As the marchers traveled through the yard swinging colorful glow sticks, accompanied by a union-led band, they picked up a number of spectators and drew some students to watch from the sidelines.

Earlier that day, University officials met with members of Unite HERE Local 26—the union that represents Harvard dining hall workers—as part of their contract renegotiations.

Union leadership offered few details about the nature of the negotiations and the University declined to comment late Thursday night.

Members of the Yale dining hall workers’ chapter of Unite HERE also met with University officials in that meeting.

Following that meeting, the union members met with student supporters in First Parish Church before kicking off the rally.

At the church, the two school’s unions discussed the differences in their contracts.

Harvard and Yale workers said they want many of the elements contained in the Yale workers’ contracts to be included in the newest contract for the Harvard dining hall workers, including full-time employment, more job training opportunities for workers, and increased job security.

“In New Haven, we have a source of inspiration,” said Unite HERE Local 26 president Brian Lang, who called five Yale workers up to the stage.

The Yale workers proceeded to discuss the struggle they endured before obtaining their current contract, including 11 strikes. The speakers said their struggle was ultimately worth the pay-off.

“We stand here today with full-time employment. We stand here with no lay-off language—period. We stand here with 100 percent free medical,” said Robert “Bob” Proto, president of Unite HERE Local 35, which represents Yale dining hall workers. “There’s a standard of quality of jobs that Harvard needs to raise up to Yale’s.”

Lang said that the Yale workers made a presentation to Harvard officials during the negotiations earlier in the day Thursday and that the Yale workers presented some “very concrete solutions to the problems we’ve been facing.”

Harvard dining hall workers also spoke during the First Parish Church meeting, saying that they are fighting for a contract that benefits the entire University.

“We’re here tonight to make life better for everybody,” said Ed Childs, a chef in Adams House and a union official. “The problem is there are some people on the other side who do not want to make life better. But we intend to win because we intend to be united, workers, students, and faculty.”

Childs then proceeded to grab the hands of a student and a worker and raised them high, a symbol that would be repeated throughout the night, and drew thunderous applause from the audience.

Students also expressed support for the dining hall workers.

Undergraduate Council president Senan Ebrahim ’12 spoke about the symbiotic relationship between students and dining hall workers.

“Every time I’ve been in a dining hall, workers have had my back,” Ebrahim said. “Now, it’s our turn.”

SLAM member Naimonu A. James ’14 received a standing ovation from the energized attendees when she expressed SLAM’s dedication to the workers’ cause. With over 50 students standing behind her, James said, “No matter what this takes or how long it takes, we’re going to get this done, and we’re going to get each other through it.”

—Staff writer Mercer R. Cook can be reached at mcook@college.harvard.edu.

Dining Hall Workers To Rally in The Square

2011-05-12T10:56:00.000-04:00

Dining Hall Workers To Rally in The Square
By MERCER R. COOK, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Yale University dining hall workers and students will join their Harvard counterparts at a meeting for the local chapter of Unite Here to share negotiation strategies they have employed to reach an agreement on their current contract with Yale.

The meeting and discussion will follow a negotiation session between Unite Here Local 26 and the University in which both sides will put forth their official proposals for the coming contract negotiations. After the discussion with those at Yale, Unite Here members plan to rally in the Square.
Unite Here—a labor union whose members work in the hotel and food service industries, among others—represents Harvard University Hospitality and Dining Services workers.

Unite Here Local 26 President Brian Lang said that Unite Here and the Yale workers decided it would be helpful for the workers to come down for the meeting, as those at Yale would be able to provide Unite Here with new ideas for compromises between the two bodies and help broaden their approach to the negotiations.

“Yale workers have some really interesting things in their contracts, some things that we would really like to see in our own,” Lang said.

Yale has had its own negotiation troubles with Unite Here in the past. In 2003, many union members went on strike as Unite Here and Yale were negotiating a new contract for one New Haven chapter of Unite Here.

SLAM member William P. Whitham ’14 said that he thinks Harvard has a lot to learn from the Yale contract, especially on the issue of sustainable food.

“When we went down to Yale, everyone was gushing about the food,” he said. “It’s really light-years ahead [of Harvard.]”

Lang said Unite Here is pushing for “sustainable jobs” for its workers, which he defined as jobs in which workers have job security, full-time employment, and the ability to pursue happy and productive lives.

Lang also said that bringing the Yale workers to the Unite Here meeting is important because it shows solidarity between workers across university boundaries—even between traditional rivals like Harvard and Yale.

“As workers, we have to stand in solidarity with one another,” Lang said. “They support us, and we support them.”

This is the second Unite Here Local 26 member meeting of the year which students have been invited to attend. SLAM members are promoting students’ attendance at the event as part of its “Sustainable Jobs” campaign.

“It’s important that people come out to support the workers,” said Whitham. “They really care about the students. It’s really the least [the students] can do.”

—Staff writer Mercer R. Cook can be reached at mcook@college.harvard.edu.

SLAM Rallies in Support of Workers

2011-05-06T09:25:00.002-04:00

The Student Labor Action Movement has kicked off its sustainable jobs campaign to rally student support for University dining hall workers who will be re-negotiating their contracts in the coming year.

The campaign comes a week before Unite Here! Local 26, the union for Harvard University Hospitality and Dining Hall Services workers, plans to submit its contract proposal to the University.

For the campaign, SLAM has placed posters across campus that state SLAM’s demands for Harvard workers, which include greater job security and more access to full-time employment.

“Harvard needs to be providing its workers with sustainable jobs,” said SLAM member Karen A. Narefsky ’11. “[That] means jobs with full-time hours, jobs workers can sustain their livelihoods and their families’ livelihoods with. Jobs which allow them to lead full, happy, and productive lives,” Narefsky said.

The campaign links Harvard’s emphasis on sustainability, as seen with the University’s Green campaign, to sustainable jobs for workers, a tactic that Unite Here! formulated in its current negotiations with the University.

SLAM’s first event for the sustainable jobs campaign will be a Unite Here! member meeting for workers on May 12 at 8 p.m. in the First Parish Church in Cambridge. SLAM members hope to raise student awareness about the event and said that a strong attendance would help workers in their negotiations.

“Everyone should go,” said SLAM member William P. Whitham ’14.

“If we can send a strong message to the University, they’ll be less likely to cut wages and reduce hours.”

SLAM members also said they are prepared to push the campaign further.

“We’re not sure yet exactly where this campaign is going to go, but we do plan to escalate if we don’t get a positive response from Harvard,” Narefsky said.

Local 26 President Brian Lang said he welcomed SLAM’s endorsement.

“They’ve expressed support for our sustainable jobs campaign, which is the centerpiece for our proposals in these contract negotiations,” Lang said.

University spokesperson Kevin Galvin said that the University is committed to finding a workable solution for both sides.

“The people who work at Harvard University Dining Services are vital members of our community and we value the work that they do,” he wrote. “We are hopeful that an open and constructive dialogue will lead to an agreement that benefits both the Dining Services staff and the rest of the Harvard community.”

SLAM members said that while the immediate focus of the sustainable jobs campaign are the Unite Here! Workers’ contract negotiations, they will extend the campaign through the summer and into the fall when the security guards and custodial workers will be re-negotiating their contracts.

—Staff Writer Mercer R. Cook can be reached at mcook@college.harvard.edu

Dining Hall Workers Hit Hard by New Calendar

2011-03-17T10:00:00.002-04:00

From the Crimson
In the Heat of the Kitchen
Harvard’s calendar reform leaves HUDS employees scrambling
By SOFIA V. MCDONALD, CONTRIBUTING WRITER

CRIMSON FILE PHOTO

Anxiety didn’t disappear for everyone when students finished their exams before Christmas—in fact, for many employees of Harvard University Dining Services, it was only beginning. While students reveled during Harvard’s new five-week winter break, the dining halls closed one by one, leaving the staff essentially unemployed from the last week of December to the last week of January.

Harvard does allocate paid leave for the breaks in the academic calendar. The system is based on seniority; according to the existing contract, which is set to expire next June, HUDS employees accrue an annual three weeks of paid vacation after five years of continuous service, and every additional five years of continuous service results in another week of paid vacation every year. However, with the long-awaited arrival of J-Term, workers are forced to spread their paid vacation over not one but two lengthy breaks.

“I’ve been here for 35 years, and I have no vacation time left,” says Edward B. Childs, a cook in Adams House and the chief shop steward at HUDS for Unite Here, the union that represents the employees.

With fewer days of work, HUDS employees are more dependent than ever on second jobs. But due to the recession, layoffs are rolling across the restaurants, mail centers, and hotels that HUDS employees have come to rely on. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national leisure and hospitality industry has shrunk by approximately 500,000 employees since January 2008, and the total weekly hours worked by all employees dropped 7 percent over that same time period before experiencing slight gains last month.

Childs says that the unique combination of calendar reform and a struggling job market has taken its toll on HUDS employees. “We suspect that some will lose their homes, be evicted, and become homeless within the next year,” Childs says. Moreover, he predicts that the crisis will especially affect single mothers and the younger, inexperienced workers who haven’t earned many days of paid leave, both of whom make up a large part of the HUDS work force.

Of course, the HUDS contract has its advantages, in part because of the same bleakness of the current outside options. According to Johnny R. Montes, who has worked in Annenberg’s kitchen for 20 years, the “security of the job” was his favorite part of being hired by Harvard.

“We believe that Harvard provides a very comprehensive benefits package, which is part of the union bargaining agreement that is approved by the workers,” says Crista Martin, Director for Marketing and Communications for HUDS, when asked about the issue of paid vacation.

However, the current contract was signed in June 2006, almost a year before Harvard’s governing boards announced calendar reform for the 2009-2010 school year and 18 months before the beginning of the current recession as determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research. “It’s drastically affected us. You’re talking about four weeks, no pay,” Childs says. “It’s put us behind in our rents and our savings for the summer time.”

With very little opportunity to get jobs outside Harvard, HUDS employees are scrambling to get second jobs at the university, which is also proving to be a challenge. “There’s no other thing that’s there for us,” Childs says of the alternatives. “They haven’t given us any safety net.”

In response to their struggling members, the union is more active than ever, making sure its members have access to food stamps and other services. But the ultimate goal is for more sustainable, long-term change; in short, the HUDS staff hopes that the University administration will re-assess the logistics of the new calendar. “Harvard should really give some money to hold us over until we come back after J-Term,” suggests Larry E. Houston, a shop steward at Annenberg. But Childs believes that the solution lies elsewhere.

“We’re telling Faust that we need jobs,” he says, softly pounding his fist on the table. “We’re literally looking to survive.”

Dining Hall Workers Rally With Students

2011-02-25T11:22:00.000-05:00

For the record, there were about 10 HUCTW members in attendance supporting our UNITE HERE brothers and sisters.

Dining Hall Workers Rally With Students

By MERCER R. COOK, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Published: Friday, February 25, 2011

Dining hall workers and Harvard students gathered in Cambridge’s First Parish Church yesterday for a member meeting of the workers’ union before spilling into the streets of Harvard Square and coming to a shouting protest in front of the Holyoke Center.

The meeting, organized by the Boston area hospitality union Unite Here Local 26, focused on procuring “justice and respect” for dining hall workers in the coming contract negotiations with the University.

Speakers at the event called for stronger contractual wording against favoritism and harassment, more comprehensive health care coverage, and higher wages.

A survey of union workers revealed these aspects to be the things union members were most unhappy about at work. Chants of “Respect! Justice!” were interspersed throughout.

Leaders of the union feel that their demands are more than reasonable.

“We want the University to treat us like we are human beings,” said Vice President and chief negotiator for Local 26 Brian Lang. “D-hall workers are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, leaders in their communities.”

Speakers at the event spoke passionately about their negotiation goals.

One speaker, who has worked in Harvard dining halls for 32 years, expressed the frustration of facing favoritism in the workplace, spurring a wave of assenting murmurs from the crowd.

“You ask yourself, ‘Why am I being overlooked?’” he said to the audience, later adding that “the clause that prevents favoritism [in our contracts] is unclear.”

Another speaker addressed wages, which several said have decreased during the last year.

And speakers were critical of Harvard’s approach to negotiating health care policy with the dining hall workers.

“All they care about is their wealth—they do not care about our health,” one speaker shouted into the microphone.

Unite Here would not confirm the names of speakers to protect their relationships with the University.

Students also played an important role in the event.

Student Labor Action Movement organizer Remeike J.B. Forbes ’11 told the crowded pews of workers, “We are behind you 100 percent.”

Students attending the event said they felt the need to support fellow members of their community.

“Anything that affects them affects us and affects the whole Harvard community,” said Samuel J. Bakkila ‘11-’12.

Jia Hui Lee ’12, another student in attendance, added that “Harvard workers are just as much a part of Harvard as students are.”

While the event began with members seated in the church, it turned into an organized rally in Harvard Square, as workers filed out in orderly lines, holding candles and signs and chanting as they marched in front of the Holyoke Center.

A part of the team that organized the event, Richard M. Maopolski ’13 that he felt the event was a success.

“It was beautiful,” he said. “This is the first step of many.”

—Staff writer Mercer R. Cook can be reached at mcook@college.harvard.edu.

Crimson - HUCTW Rallies Against Walker Ban

2011-02-23T13:16:00.003-05:00

HUCTW Rallies Against Walker Ban
MERCER R. COOK, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Published: Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Mellow music played in the background as union supporters and their opponents chanted across a divided, police monitored Beacon Street in front of the Massachusetts State House yesterday.

The rally was a reaction to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed ban on collective bargaining in the state. Massachusetts union workers were called upon by their unions to show support for government union members in Wisconsin.

Unions in attendance at yesterday’s rally included the Boston Public School Teachers Union, Service Employees International Union, Iron Workers Local Union No. 7 and Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers.

Union workers carried signs that bore logos such as “united we bargain, divided we beg”.

State senators and representatives were also present in support of the unions, as was the State Secretary of Labor Joanne F. Goldstein.

The rally also attracted the attention of many union opponents, who stood in front of Boston Common and protested many of the pro-union speakers.

Harvard union members said they felt that the event was important to attend because many of the issues facing the Wisconsin unions feel very close to home.

“The pressures on any employer are the same,” said HUCTW member Lesley A. Schoenfeld, a Harvard Law School Library Assistant.

She stressed that unions are important because they give workers an opportunity for a voice, which they would not otherwise have.

Adrienne Landau, another HUCTW member, echoed Schoenfeld’s view on the importance of unions, saying that employers often try and save money by “not giving people the power of negotiation.”

The speakers at the event argued that unions are the backbone of the modern economy.

“Why would [Walker] stab a knife into the heart of the economy?” one of the speakers asked the audience. The question was answered with an eruption of cheers.

While union supporters outnumbered their opponents, they faced a vocal opposition.

The crowd gathered on the other side of the Beacon Street and held signs with slogans such as “Labor Yes, Unions No” and chants, including “You work for us.”

“It’s time to get tougher on the unions,” said Earl H. Sholley, a Mass. Republican who ran against Congressman Barney Frank.

—Staff writer Mercer R. Cook can be reached at mcook@college.harvard.edu.

Rally to Support Wisconsin Workers - TODAY!

2011-02-22T10:52:00.000-05:00

Support the Rights of Wisconsin Workers
Tuesday, February 22nd
4-6PM
Massachusetts State House

Join workers from across Massachusetts to show support for our sisters and brothers in Wisconsin who are fighting to keep workers' rights alive. Click here for more info on their struggle.

Sponsored by: Mass Teachers Assn., AFT Massachusetts Mass AFL-CIO. Greater Boston Central Labor Council, AFSCME Council 93, SEIU Local 509, 1199 SEIU, SEIU Local 888, Jobs With Justice and many others.

For more information call 617-524-8778 or go to www.massjwj.net

Clerical Workers support our sisters and brothers in UNITE HERE Local 26!

2011-02-20T19:19:00.003-05:00

No Layoffs Campaigners strongly support the below event by our sisters and brothers in UNITE HERE Local 26, who work in Harvard's dining halls. Please consider attending. The event is open to all pro-union people.

UNITE HERE!
You're invited!
To a meeting for all UNITE HERE Local 26 members at Harvard.

This will be the first general membership meeting to kick off our 2011 campaign for a new contract. Our contract expires in June. At this meeting we will discuss our proposals and our plans to win a better future, for each of us, for our families, and for each other.

Thursday, February 24, 8 p.m.
1st Parish Church in Cambridge
1 Church St. at Mass. Ave.

Flyer from 12/1/10 action supporting Joan Frankel, Phebe Eckfeldt and Marian Merullo

2010-12-04T16:58:00.001-05:00

Working women under attack!

Members of HUCTW (the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers) are facing sharp attacks from management:

Joan Frankel, unfairly fired after 25 years’ excellent service. Joan’s termination letter blamed her for making a helpful suggestion aimed at saving Harvard money! This was said to be insubordination. Joan has filed age discrimination charges with the MCAD (Mass. Commission Against Discrimination);

Phebe Eckfeldt, facing retaliatory discipline for becoming a union activist. Phebe has 15 years experience at Harvard. After being elected as a union rep this year, and assisting co-workers, Phebe has been unfairly threatened in writing with termination. She has filed Unfair Labor Practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board;

Marian Merullo, laid off in June ’09 after more than 22 years of dedicated service in Widener Library. Marian has applied for at least 20 HUCTW jobs but can’t get rehired, even though a union/mgmt. committee said she should be. Marian is surviving on unemployment benefits for the moment, and faces the loss of her home.

Please join workers, students, and concerned members of the community as we

rally! wed. Dec. 1, 5 pm

Holyoke center, 1350 mass. Ave. For more information please email: nolayoffscampaign@yahoo.com or visit: harvardnolayoffs.blogspot.com

Labor donated.

12/1/10 Rally Supporting HUCTW members Joan Frankel, Phebe Eckfeldt and Marian Merullo

2010-12-03T00:40:00.005-05:00

No Layoffs 2010 HUCTW Election Slate

2010-12-01T16:49:00.000-05:00

HUCTW ELECTIONS
UNION MEMBERS VOTE TUES., DECEMBER 7!
Go to www.huctw.org for times and places to vote.
Below are personal statements from candidates:

OUR PLATFORM
- No Layoffs and Budget Cuts: Harvard Has the Money!
- Rehire the laid off HUCTW workers: Stop the abuse of term and temp workers! Full union rights for all!
- Fight the targeting of longer service employees + for a real seniority clause in our next contract.
- Higher raises in the next contract! Reverse the trend of declining raises!

GENEVIEVE BUTLER FOR PRESIDENT
“In one year we lost at least 340 HUCTW jobs (7% of our membership), due to layoffs, attrition and
‘voluntary’ retirements. Our current contract features the lowest raises HUCTW members have ever
received. It’s not possible to blame the economy because Harvard recently received a $50 million gift,
purchased an enormous dairy farm in New Zealand for $20.7 million, and currently enjoys a $27 billion
endowment. Please vote BUTLER/ONYEAGORO/THEADORE/KORITZ: We want real
representation, real advocacy and a real union!”

EMEKA ONYEAGORO FOR VICE PRESIDENT
“On December 7, we need to send a strong message that this is a union of the members of HUCTW,
directed, and sustained by all of us and not by the very few on top. I ask for your vote because I
understand what is at stake; we need to strengthen our grievance process, fight the targeting of longer
service employees, stop harassment of union reps, end the abuse of term and temp workers, and reverse
the trend of declining raises.”

DEBORAH THEODORE FOR TREASURER
“I am running for Treasurer because I think our Union needs to be closer to its membership than to
management. I am running because I am tired of seeing the same names shuffling through all of the
executive positions in the Union. I am running because I’ve seen our Union leadership back away too
often from supporting and defending members who have been unfairly targeted for personal, not workrelated
issues.”

JOSHUA KORITZ FOR SECRETARY + UNION REP (FAS SCIENCES REGION)
“I will be a strong advocate for workers, not the boss. I will always fight for workers in any situation.
The job of a Union Rep is to talk to union members, rather than HR. I’ll oppose increased workloads
and push for good working conditions - we as Harvard workers have the right to stand up for our rights,
and the Union exists to protect us.”

Harvard says cash holdings climb to $1b

2010-10-20T13:57:00.000-04:00

By Beth Healy, Globe Staff | October 20, 2010

Harvard University more than tripled its holdings in cash and US Treasuries, to $1 billion, by the end of fiscal year 2010, following sharp investment losses during the financial crisis that left the nation’s richest institution temporarily cash-strapped.

Harvard, in its annual report for the 2009-2010 year, ending June 30, said it made “significant progress’’ reshaping the university’s pool of operating funds “to be more readily available, and less susceptible to illiquidity and market fluctuations.’’ Harvard said it started to put the money in safer, shorter-term investments, starting in fiscal year 2008 and will stick with that strategy over the next year.

The university’s top financial officials said in the report that Harvard had made progress in responding to changed economic circumstances. “Nonetheless, we must continue to be vigilant in managing our finances in order to ensure that Harvard can fulfill its mission even with the continued uncertainty that surrounds us,’’ they wrote.

With an annual operating budget of $3.7 billion — trimmed by 1 percent, or $32.5 million, from the previous year — Harvard said it expects to further add to its cash holdings in 2011, according to the report.
Still, Harvard had a net operating deficit of $4.7 million for fiscal year 2010, meaning expenses outstripped revenues. In the devastating prior year — which included steep declines in the endowment and the loss of $1.8 billion in cash — Harvard operated at a $45.3 million surplus.

The school also reiterated the reasons behind its decision to put an ambitious Allston expansion project on hold, saying that since December of last year it has been reevaluating its strategy due to “reduced financial resources.’’ With a massive science complex delayed indefinitely, officials are focused on leasing some of the Allston property, landscaping unfinished construction sites, and adding resources for the community such as a sports center and skating rink. Plans for development of the Allston campus will move ahead “as resources allow,’’ according to the report, but there was no estimate of when that might happen.

Building at the site stopped in part because Harvard is limited in how much debt it can issue and still maintain its AAA rating with bond agencies. The university’s total bonds and notes outstanding were $6.3 billion at June 30, up from $6 billion a year ago. The debt load has more than doubled since 2006, and last year cost Harvard $265 million in interest. That was up more than 25 percent from 2009 interest expense.
Harvard said it has taken further measures to decrease risks on interest rate exchange agreements. Such agreements act as hedges to protect against dramatic changes in interest rates. Harvard spent $500 million in 2009 to get out of derivatives intended to insulate from rising rates. When rates instead fell, the investments backfired.

In 2010, Harvard reported, it entered into $696 million worth of new interest rate exchange agreements, called swaps, aimed at reducing the risk of losses on older swaps that were written with different terms. The new swaps did not cost anything up-front, but if rates rise, the university will be less likely to recoup any past losses on the investments, it said.

As of June 20, Harvard’s total liability related to interest rate exchange agreements was $731 million.

Beth Healy can be reached at bhealy@globe.com.

Images from 9/20/10 picket for unfairly-fired HUCTW member Joan Frankel

2010-09-27T18:02:00.005-04:00

Justice for Joan: Boston Sass Attack cheers the crowd!

2010-09-22T19:18:00.003-04:00

Radical cheerleaders Boston Sass Attack bring their righteous noise to our 9/20/10 picket supporting Joan Frankel. Click link above to watch the vid, shot by Doug Pouliot.

Justice for Joan! Evan Greer supports our 9/20/10 picket

2010-09-22T13:25:00.005-04:00

HUCTW member Joan Frankel was unfairly-fired by Harvard after 25 years' excellent service. On 9/30/10 union members, students and concerned community members held our second picket in support of Joan. Riot Folksinger Evan Greer gets the crowd pumped to demonstrate with original tunes and the union anthem, "Solidarity Forever!" Thanks to our good friend Evan Greer. Justice for Joan! Click on the link above to watch the performance. Footage shot by Doug Pouliot, sound by Freeman Z.

Crimson Reports on Action for Joan

2010-09-21T12:16:00.000-04:00

Employees, SLAM Protest on Behalf of Fired Worker
By Tara W. Merrigan, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Wearing green union T-shirts and white "REHIRE JOAN" stickers, about 30 Harvard employees, students, and community members staged a rally yesterday evening protesting the termination of Joan Frankel, a former University employee of 25 years.

"Justice for Joan! Justice for Joan!" the group chanted as it marched through Harvard Yard to Pierce Hall where Frankel was stationed as a School of Engineering and Applied Science financial assistant for 25 years.

Frankel, a member of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, was fired on July 6 after receiving two disciplinary letters in May and June, according to a flier handed out at the protest. Frankel had received "excellent performance reviews for 24 straight years" prior to 2010, according to the flier.

"I have done nothing to justify this," said Frankel, who spoke at the rally. "If I don’t find a job soon, I’ll be receiving less than half of the pension I would get if I retired at 65. I can’t even pay my rent with that."

Many demonstrators described Frankel’s termination as "unfair," "ridiculous," and "unjust," claiming that Frankel was fired because her salary and full pension cost the University more than it would like to spend.

"I think this is outrageous," said Neal J. Meyer ’11, a Student Labor Action Movement member who participated in the protest. "Joan worked at Harvard for many years with great reviews, but it was too expensive for Harvard to keep her."
"Harvard fired her the day after her mother died," said Abigail S. Brown '11-'12. "I think there’s a lot of humanity missing there on the University’s part."

HUCTW representative Geoff Carens said the union’s contract allows employees bereavement leave. Frankel’s termination the day after her mother’s death "disregarded" the Union’s contract, according to Carens, who organized the rally with members of the "No Layoff Campaign," a group also known as "Reform HUCTW."
Since her termination in July, Frankel said she has unsuccessfully applied for 34 University jobs.

University spokesperson Kevin Galvin and HUCTW Director Bill Jaeger declined to comment on the rally or Frankel’s case.

"We’re going to be doing this all year—as long as it takes for the wrongs that have been done to Joan are made right," Carens said.

"We’ll be back! We’ll be back!" the crowd chanted outside the Pierce Building at the rally’s conclusion.

—Staff writer Tara W. Merrigan can be reached at tmerrigan@college.harvard.edu.

Despite Endowment Gains, FAS continues with cuts

2010-09-15T15:49:00.001-04:00

FAS Enters Final Stage of Cuts

By Noah S. Rayman and Elyssa A. L. Spitzer, CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Published: Friday, September 10, 2010

The coming academic year will pose the greatest budgetary challenges the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has faced since the Great Recession struck in 2008, as FAS Dean Michael D. Smith has predicted over the past few months.

The University’s largest school made considerable progress since early 2009, closing nearly $185 million of a $220 million deficit. Now Smith pledges to eliminate the remaining $35 million deficit by the summer of 2012.
“Dean Smith has often stressed that this year would be the most challenging financially,” FAS spokesman Jeff Neal wrote in an e-mail yesterday.

Yesterday’s announcement that the University’s endowment increased 11 percent in the past year, bringing the overall endowment to $27.4 billion, could offer sought-after relief for next year’s budget.

But this year, FAS is working with a 12-percent reduction in the annual endowment payout—around 50 percent of its budget—determined by the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body.
Departmental budgets could face further strain as a result of a two-year contract agreement struck between the University and the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers in July. The contract provides many staff members a $1,000 raise this fiscal year.

FAS is now planning for what it has labeled “phase three” of its financial recovery process, involving cost-cutting measures with structural, long-term ramifications. Indeed, department leaders said in interviews with The Crimson that after two years of incremental cuts, the discourse has steered away from budget-slashing to larger restructuring.

“Two years ago, almost every week, every day, we were meeting about how to cut the budget,” said Math Department Chair Shing-Tung Yau. “Now we are talking about how to serve the students better.”
Yau said that his department is once again discussing the possibility of hiring more professors—a development he regards as a welcome change from the past two years, when the department operated under the FAS-wide slow-down on faculty searches.

In the wake of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008, when the University endowment fell by 30 percent, FAS found itself $220 million in the red. The school responded to the crisis with 15-percent budgetary reductions in academic departments and an early retirement package for staff workers. Those measures “generated immediate savings,” according to Neal.

In continuing its emphasis on budgetary oversight, FAS introduced last year the “first dollar principle,” through which Smith aimed to spend FAS’ restricted funds—money with limitations on how it may be spent because of donor specifications—before spending the school’s unrestricted funds.

More details about the current state of the budget, FAS’ approach to the cuts, and Smith’s priorities in the coming year will be announced at the next Faculty meeting on Oct. 6, according to Neal.
For now, departments are coping with whatever they can get. Gennaro Chierchia, chair of the Linguistics Department, said his department was granted a part-time replacement to fill in for a departed staffer.
“And that is a big help, especially in a small department, because every little thing counts,” he noted.

—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Elyssa A.L. Spitzer can be reached at spitzer@fas.harvard.edu.

Harvard's Endowment reports 11% Increase in FY2010

2010-09-10T10:26:00.000-04:00

Harvard Gazette:
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/09/harvard-endowment-posts-strong-positive-return-2/

Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/09/10/a_new_year_at_harvard/

Harvard endowment posts strong positive return

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Justin Ide/Harvard Staff Photographer

The University’s endowment provides critical funding for Harvard’s educational and research objectives. In fiscal 2010, distributions from the endowment contributed more than a third of the University’s operating budget.

Harvard University’s endowment earned an investment return of 11 percent for the year and was valued at $27.4 billion as of June 30. The return was 160 basis points above what would have been earned by the Harvard Management Company’s (HMC) benchmark policy portfolio.

“Fiscal year 2010 was an important and productive year for the Management Company,” said Jane Mendillo, president and CEO of HMC. “We generated strong returns and improved the flexibility of the portfolio while actively managing our risks and pursuing innovative investment strategies.”

The University’s endowment provides critical funding for Harvard’s educational and research objectives. In fiscal 2010, distributions from the endowment contributed more than a third of the University’s operating budget. Endowment income supports Harvard’s academic programs, science and medical research, and student financial aid programs, which permit the University to admit qualified students regardless of their ability to pay. Harvard’s endowment also enables the University to undertake specific activities that donors have supported over time, targeted to areas such as financial aid, faculty salaries, and facilities maintenance.

The University remains committed to supporting financial aid for undergraduates, which is expected to increase about 7 percent for fiscal 2011. More than 60 percent of Harvard undergraduates are receiving need-based scholarship aid this year, totaling $158 million, and two-thirds now graduate debt-free. Throughout Harvard, scholarships and awards to students from University funds have almost tripled over the past decade, reaching $340 million. The College’s industry-leading financial aid policies are designed to make Harvard more affordable for families across the economic spectrum and have remained firmly in place despite the current economic downturn.

Over the long term, HMC has produced strong investment returns for the Harvard portfolio. The average annual return on the endowment over the last 20 years has been 11.9 percent, and 7 percent over the last decade. HMC returns charted over both 10 and 20 years have outpaced a typical 60/40 stock/bond portfolio, the TUCS median fund, and HMC’s own policy portfolio benchmark. On average over the last decade, HMC has added 5.1 percent annually over and above the 60/40 portfolio, 3.6 percent over the TUCS median fund, and 3.3 percent over the policy portfolio.

The endowment’s total value is affected by several factors each year, including investment returns, new contributions, and the annual payout for University programs. The endowment stood at $26 billion on June 30, 2009.

The endowment is not a single fund, but more than 11,000 individual funds, many of them restricted to specific uses such as support of a research center or creation of a professorship in a particular subject. The funds are invested by HMC, which oversees the University’s endowment, pension, trust funds, and other investments at a significant cost savings compared with outside management.

Harvard endowment gains 11%, but trails market

By Beth Healy Globe Staff / September 10, 2010

Harvard University’s endowment climbed 11 percent for the year ended June 30, adding $1.4 billion to the school’s wealth but underperforming other large funds and the stock market.

The nation’s largest endowment, with $27.4 billion in assets, benefited from rebounding markets, as stocks rallied and nearly every investment category posted gains through the first few months of this year, according to the annual report from Harvard Management Co., which oversees the fund. US and foreign stocks were among the best performers, with double-digit gains, along with private equity — investments that had helped drag the fund down a stunning 27.3 percent amid the financial crisis in fiscal 2009.

“In comparison to one year ago, our portfolio and our organization are now significantly better positioned to continue to deliver strong long-term returns as well as actively manage our risks,’’ the endowment’s chief, Jane L. Mendillo, wrote in the annual report released yesterday.

The fund beat its internal benchmark of 9.4 percent for the year but came in under the median 13.3 percent return for large funds tracked by the consulting firm Wilshire Associates. With a broad mix of stocks, bonds, hedge funds, natural resources, and other investments, the endowment has often trounced the stock market, but not this year: the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 13.9 percent. Harvard also lagged the state’s $41 billion pension fund, which gained 12.8 percent in the fiscal year.

Mendillo has characterized the two years since she took over the fund as a restructuring period. She has reorganized the staff, hired a number of new top reports and has focused on keeping the endowment more liquid, after the market’s historic turmoil in late 2008 left the fund, and the university, in a cash crunch. She kept 2 percent of the endowment in cash last year, an about-face from the many years in which the fund had negative cash, as it borrowed to invest even more aggressively.

She indicated she is content with the changes in the portfolio, saying, “we are pleased to have a well-diversified portfolio with some room to move.’’

The endowment provides 35 percent of the university’s total annual budget, helping to pay for everything from professors’ salaries to the various schools’ operations, including Harvard Business School. The university, which had also invested its operating cash in the endowment, had to issue debt last year to make up for sharp losses. The school laid off workers and halted its Allston campus expansion.

Having set aside some of the fund’s cash in order to take advantage of opportunities, Mendillo wrote, Harvard made several new real estate investments during the year. Real estate was the only asset class to fall in value last year, but Mendillo is bullish on the sector.

Meanwhile, Mendillo has reduced by 20 percent the number of outside firms that Harvard hires, including hedge funds, to manage slices of its assets. She said the endowment has been more aggressive in both selling and buying partnerships in real estate and private equity funds, unloading stakes it no longer likes and concentrating on top-performing managers.

The report says Harvard has cut back its future capital commitments to real estate and private equity funds to $6.5 billion from over $11 billion two years ago. Mendillo is interested in bringing more assets in-house, to keep greater control of the endowment’s money. When the markets froze in 2008 and 2009, Harvard, like other large investors, found its cash locked up by numerous managers. She wrote, “I do think that it makes sense to increase the share of internally managed assets under the right conditions, given the added agility and cost effectiveness of managing money this way.’’

Mendillo is working to convince faculty, alumni, and others with a deep interest in the endowment that it’s worth paying multimillion-dollar incentive packages to internal managers who perform well. Harvard Management said its expenses for running the fund have averaged less than 0.3 percent of assets over the past five years, according to a consultant it hired to review costs.

Mendillo said that was substantially less costly than the 1.5 percent to 2 percent that outside hedge funds charge, on top of the 20 percent cut they take of investment gains. She said the internal managers have saved Harvard more than $1 billion in fees over the past decade.

Justice for Joan

2010-07-09T11:55:00.001-04:00

Reinstate Joan!

On July 6, 2010, HUCTW member Joan Frankel was informed she will be fired July 28.
Joan has 25 years service in what is now the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). She faces the immediate loss of her livelihood, and sharply reduced pension benefits when she retires
from the workforce.

Joan received excellent performance reviews for 24 straight years. She is respected throughout SEAS as a hard worker who gets her job done. She was promoted in early 2008, just before her former supervisor retired.

Despite a positive evaluation of her work in June 2009 (in addition to many written compliments of her dedicated service), here is the timeline of disciplinary letters she received this year:
• March 16, 2010 – 1st written warning
• June 1, 2010 – Final written warning
• July 6, 2010 – Notice of termination

Joan has been actively pursuing Problem Solving according to the HUCTW contract. She wants nothing more than to continue doing excellent work at Harvard. Union members want to know why an experienced, competent employee would so swiftly lose her job.

Join us in demanding Joan be reinstated!
Public Demonstration of Support for Joan
July 21, 2010 – 12 noon
Starting in Holyoke Center (1350 Mass Ave, Harvard Sq),
Marching to Pierce Hall (29 Oxford St).
Please join the facebook event at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/event.php?eid=139317766095311

For more information, or to get involved in helping Joan, please email: justice4joan@yahoo.com
Send all emails/letters of support to: justice4joan@yahoo.com, bill_murphy@harvard.edu, steve_marley@harvard.edu

Crimson: Union Negotiations Made "Challenging" By Fiscal Situation

2010-07-08T10:05:00.001-04:00

Union Negotiations Made "Challenging" By Fiscal Situation

By Sofia E. Groopman, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Published: Saturday, July 03, 2010

The University’s difficult financial situation rendered contract negotiations between the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers and University management particularly challenging in the past year, according to leaders of both parties.

HUCTW and the University entered the eighth round of negotiations with differing opinions on Harvard’s ability to increase wages and extend benefits in subsequent years, leading to a tentative two-year contract agreement on Wednesday—a divergence from the three-year contracts that have been the norm since the union’s founding in 1989.

The union and University management also disagreed on whether Harvard’s finances are improving and will continue to improve, according to HUCTW Director Bill Jaeger, who could not elaborate further on the specifics of the discrepancy in opinions. Harvard’s Director of Labor Relations Bill Murphy similarly declined to detail the points of disagreement.

“These were challenging negotiations, but the parties worked together respectfully and we consider this a successful agreement which reflects the economic times,” Murphy wrote in a statement.

Echoing Murphy’s sentiments, Jaeger said that the recent negotiations occurred within what was likely “the most difficult set of external circumstances we’ve ever had to contend with,” in reference to the roughly $11 billion that Harvard’s endowment lost in the 2008 market crash. But Jaeger added that negotiating parties were able to “work out something that we think will work in such difficult financial times.”

The tentative agreement offers a 2.58 percent average pay increase to HUCTW members over the next two years, with an a $1,000 raise for all HUCTW members this year, and a 3.5 percent salary increase for the majority of union members—significantly less than the salary increases in the 4 to 4.5 percent range outlined in the previous contract.

“The economics are not as strong as they have been in other times, but those were times of greater prosperity and economic growth,” said Jaeger of the decrease in pay raises, adding that the union is “very proud” of policy changes in the contract.

In what seems to be a reactive measure to the slew of staff cuts that swept through the University during the budget crisis last year, the new contract features offers details on the University’s layoff procedures. Specifically, an individual’s length of service will be the determining factor in job cuts when the University cannot demonstrate differences in employees' qualifications, abilities, function, or documented performance, according to a Harvard official close to negotiations who wished to remain anonymous because the contract remains tentative.

The new agreement includes strong language that seeks to ensure that the Union and the University work together to manage layoffs. Though such a measure was already in place, Jaeger said he hopes to make sure that union-management collaboration happens "earlier and more meaningfully."

“The worst of any layoff experience for our members is almost certainly behind us,” said Jaeger, in reference to the layoffs of about 100 union members last year.

The Harvard official confirmed that “currently, there are no plans for any layoff announcements.”
The new contract expresses a commitment on behalf of the union and the University to determine when it is appropriate to hire employees for “term jobs,” positions with a designated end date, usually one to two years from the time of hiring, which can be extended by the employer. The issue has been a source of tension between union members and the University, since employees whose jobs end on the specified date after less than two years of employment do not receive unemployment benefits.

Both HUCTW and Harvard officials agree that “term jobs” are appropriate in times when a funding source or a the duration of a specific project are limited—such as recent digitizing projects, or a position associated with a grant. But some HUCTW officials argue that the University’s use of term jobs can border on abusive.
But Jaeger, who said he was pleased with the stipulation in the new contract, expressed a more tempered view of the situation of temporary workers, saying that it was “not an outrage” but “a serious concern.”
“If we disagree now we’ve got a way to investigate and resolve it together, and to go to mediation if necessary,” Jaeger said. “I don’t think it’s an overnight fix, but it’s the beginning of a new process.”

The new contract also increases the size of the union’s membership by granting union eligibility to non-exempt jobs in salary grade 56, or Harvard employees who earn between $49,800 and $82,000 a year—a salary grade higher than was previously covered in the contract. The change will lead to "important new career development opportunities for current Union members," according to an e-mail from HUCTW leadership to union members.

Additionally, there will be no cuts in union member’s benefits, such as health care, tuition assistance, and retirement.

Both HUCTW and University officials attribute their ability to reach a satisfactory agreement in difficult conditions to their particularly strong relationship.

“It’s a good thing that we have a mature partnership, and a lot of good relationships and built up respect between union and University leaders,” Jaeger said. “We needed all of that to make things work in this round of negotiations.”

—Staff Writer Sofia E. Groopman can be reached at segroopm@fas.harvard.edu.

Harvard Institutes a Gag Order?

2010-07-06T09:19:00.001-04:00

2010 Muzzle Awards on campus

Harvard and Yale once again lead the way . . . for academic censorship

By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 30, 2010

Harvard and Yale universities felt the sting of the global economic collapse firsthand in 2009, as the endowments of these stalwart New England Ivy League members dropped by nearly a third. The schools didn't fare much better in the free marketplace of ideas, either. Since last summer, both Ivies have helped pave the censorial frontiers of the corporatized academy, while employing public-relations armies to perpetuate the aura of the liberal-arts sensibility. For these efforts, described in more detail below, two of the nation's pre-eminent academic institutions have earned Muzzle Awards, accolades unlikely to be trumpeted by their respective Offices of Public Affairs.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Harvard, a private institution, is not bound by the First Amendment guarantee of free expression. But Harvard's own Free Speech Guidelines promise wide latitude for self-expression, because "[c]urtailment of free speech undercuts the intellectual freedom that defines our purpose." In at least four instances over the last year, however, Harvard's actions spoke louder than words.

1. Med School media muzzle A proposed Harvard Medical School policy for 2009–'10 instructed "all interactions between students and the media" to be coordinated with the school's public-relations office. The policy was reportedly influenced by student comments in a New York Timesexposé of conflicts of interest among Med School professors. When students were notified about the new policy last August, the incensed aspiring MDs naturally contacted the Times. Under the Times' spotlight, Med School administrators admitted the wording was "problematic" and vowed to remove the policy from the student handbook.

2. Law School soft censorship A third-year Harvard Law student, in a November e-mail to a friend, expressed her interest in seeing further research on a controversial question: whether race and intelligence might be genetically linked. Though the 3L stressed that she "would just like some scientific data to disprove the genetic position," she deemed the available data insufficient for certainty.
When said e-mail surfaced in late April on a self-described "legal tabloid" blog, Harvard Law Dean Martha Minow sent a school-wide response, in which she not only misinterpreted the student's intent, but condemned the mere asking of the 3L's questions. This skeptical student's "false view," Minow wrote in her accusatory e-mail, "suggested that black people are genetically inferior to white people."
Read closely, the student's e-mail makes no such suggestion. In Minow's response, however, you'll find a textbook example of soft censorship — no direct penalty, but a declaration that certain ideas (or even questions) are off-limits. Minow was "heartened" by the 3L's acknowledging "the offense and hurt that the comment engendered." How would Minow have responded had the student stood by her inquiry? Soft, or hard punishment?

3. Employee loyalty oath It's not only student speech that is under scrutiny. Harvard employees were required, this past year, to sign a stringent "confidentiality agreement," a ban on disclosure of "information about a person or an entity that, if disclosed, could . . . be damaging to financing standing, employability, reputation or other interests [emphasis added]." This serves to insulate not only Harvard, but also its administrators, from public criticism. "Other interests," of course, are in the eyes of the beholder. And few employees would risk venturing to find out what they might be.

4. The inmates take over the asylum Given the Muzzle-friendly campus milieu, it's small wonder that students even turned the cudgel of censorship onto themselves. Radical anti-immigration activist (and Minuteman Project founder) Jim Gilchrist was invited to speak at an October 17 Harvard symposium. Days before the event, notwithstanding that Gilchrist had spoken at Harvard Law less than a year prior, the Harvard Undergraduate Legal Committee rescinded the invitation. Justifying his censorial urges, a student expressed concern "about the broader national implications of legitimizing these extremist views with the Harvard name." These undergrads had clearly drunk Harvard's corporatized Kool-Aid.

YALE UNIVERSITY
Yale, too, is a private institution that, in theory, honors free expression. Yale University Press (YUP) blatantly flouted this ethos when in August it decided to censor a series of cartoons — in a book about the cartoons.
To recap: in 2005, Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed cartoons satirizing the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Reactionaries protested; other papers reprinted in response; scattered violence ensued. Four years later, Brandeis University historian Jytte Klausen wrote about it: The Cartoons That Shook the World, published by YUP.

Claiming to fear a reprise of violence, YUP censored the depictions of Muhammad in this book, ironically, about censorship. John Donatich, YUP director, told the New York Times that he didn't want "blood on my hands."

The American Association of University Professors, along with 11 other free-speech advocates, issued a statement excoriating YUP, invoking Ben Franklin's warning that those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety will get neither liberty nor safety. (Disclosure: one of the statement's signees was the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, of which I'm the board chairman.) Professor Klausen viewed the betrayal with apparent irony: "I became a chapter in my own book," she said at an October 1 talk.
Slate's Christopher Hitchens got closer to the heart of YUP's betrayal in response to Donatich's "blood on my hands" rationalization: "What a cause of shame that the campus of Nathan Hale [a Revolutionary War hero and Yale alum] should have pre-emptively run up the white flag and then cringingly taken the blood guilt of potential assassins and tyrants upon itself."

The foundational liberties for which patriots fought are now under siege from within. Today's enemy: modern universities' urge to "control the message" and eliminate potential threats to the bottom line.

Harvey Silverglate can be reached at has@harveysilverglate.com. Kyle Smeallie and Maria Romero, Silverglate's research assistants, contributed to this article.

Images from 5/26 PICKET supporting DENNIS PRATER & against LAYOFFS and TEMP ABUSE

2010-06-02T11:58:00.004-04:00

Harvard discloses pay for endowment officials

2010-05-18T11:16:00.000-04:00

Harvard discloses pay for endowment officials

By Beth Healy, Globe Staff | May 18, 2010

The chief of Harvard University’s endowment earned nearly $1 million for her first six months on the job in 2008, according to a tax filing made public Monday, as global markets plunged and dragged the fund down with them.

Jane Mendillo joined Harvard on July 1, 2008, and oversaw a 22 percent dive in the endowment through October of that year. The fund’s value would tumble 27 percent, to $26 billion, by the end of her first full fiscal year on June 30, 2009.

In a trying period for the elite institution, Harvard’s president, Drew Gilpin Faust, earned $822,011 in total compensation in calendar 2008, up 6 percent from the prior year. Of that, $96,000 was for housing.

The highest-paid faculty member on the tax disclosure is professor William E. Fruhan of Harvard Business School, who took home nearly $1.2 million that year. Harvard declined to comment on the pay reports.
Paychecks at the endowment have long riled critics, even in the years when the fund was vastly outperforming those of other schools. The five highest-paid managers of the endowment earned $26 million for calendar 2008, as previously reported. The lion’s share of that comes in performance-based bonuses, which can be taken back later if managers fall short of longer-term goals. In the mid-2000s, some Harvard managers made tens of millions of dollars each.

In a letter to alumni on the pay disclosures, Mendillo nodded to recent national scandals over pay on Wall Street and said Harvard’s compensation was “designed to align the interests of HMC’s investment management staff with those of the university.’’

Mendillo wrote in her letter that the active management of Harvard’s best investment professionals has paid off over time: The endowment has gained 11.7 percent annually over 20 years, vs. 7.8 percent for an index of stocks and bonds.

Mendillo, who has been credited with pulling in the reins at the endowment after a period of heavy risk-taking that left the university cash-strapped, also said Harvard Management has instituted tougher pay rules on its top people. Starting in July, members of the fund’s entire senior team — not just the chief executive — will have their pay linked to performance of the overall endowment. And senior managers will see their pay cut in any year when the endowment loses money; portfolio managers will continue to be paid for performance relative to benchmarks.

Mendillo’s half-year pay was comparable to that of a recent predecessor, Mohamed El-Erian, who resigned as president of Harvard Management at the end of 2007 and earned $921,000 in his final six months.

Beth Healy can be reached at bhealy@globe.com.

4 LAYOFFS ANNOUNCED IN WIDENER LIBRARY; 5/26 PROTEST

2010-05-06T18:04:00.008-04:00

On 4/30/10 four workers in Widener received layoff notices. Three were HUCTW members. The union members laid off were working on digital photography and digital scanning projects, said to be the future of the Library. These latest layoffs come on top of at least *340 clerical union jobs* lost in the past year alone!

To protest these unnecessary and harmful cuts, and decry the ongoing abuse of Temps by Harvard, activists plan a picket during Harvard's Commencement Week.

We will highlight the case of Dennis Prater, pictured above at left, who was cycled through 3 different categories of Temp and LHT ("less than half-time") employment, even though the union contract says, "It is a fundamental ideal of the Harvard workplace that...the use of Temp and LHT workers should be exceptional and strictly limited, and never at the expense of regular employment. In other words, everyone who does regular Harvard work on a regular basis deserves the benefits of regular employment status." After ignoring the union contract by keeping Prater out of the union, and never giving him so much as one paid sick day, Harvard laid him off! Harvard Temps receive no meaningful benefits.

We will demonstrate against the layoffs and abuse of Temp employees on Wed., May 26, at 5 p.m., in front of Harvard's Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave., Cambridge.

ALL ARE INVITED TO COME AND HELP US STRIKE A BLOW FOR WORKERS' RIGHTS!

Crimson - Workers Advocates March on Yard

2010-04-30T10:25:00.001-04:00

Workers Advocates March on Yard

By TARA W. MERRIGAN, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Published: Friday, April 30, 2010

SIRUI LI

Christopher A. Johnson-Roberson ‘11 sings for more communication with workers in the Harvard community as he leads a procession of 30 across the Yard.

Strumming a banjo and guitar, two Harvard undergraduates led a band of 30 through Harvard Yard yesterday afternoon, stopping at various landmarks to air employee concerns and honor University staff.

The group—which included Harvard students, faculty, and staff—aimed to remind the Harvard community of the impact of last year’s layoffs on current employees, such as heavier work loads, said Neal J. Meyer ’11, a Crimson photographer and a member of the Harvard Student Labor Action Movement, which organized the event.

Starting at Mass. Hall, the demonstrators first delivered a letter to University President Drew G. Faust requesting a meeting with 10 Harvard employees before making their way to Annenberg Dining Hall, the Center for Government and International Studies, Widener Library, and University Hall.

At each stop, the group left thank-you posters and several red long stem roses—a nod to the 1912 Bread and Roses strike of immigrant textile workers in Lawrence, Mass.—to show their respect for University staff.

“Harvard needs to not only give world-class treatment to only its students, but also its workers,” SLAM member Jane W. Williams ’13 said.

Group members also voiced concerns specific to employees working at each location.

For example, subcontracted janitors working at CGIS are currently without health insurance. The subcontractor, Eurest Services, has not found a new provider since discontinuing its current services, according to Service Employees International Union Local 615 organizer Daniel Brasil Becker.

On the steps of Widener, Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers representative Geoffrey Carens spoke out against what he called “the abuse of temporary employees,” claiming that the University is relying too heavily on temporary workers who do not receive the benefits that union workers are guaranteed.

Several students who were not affiliated with SLAM also marched with the group to show their support and appreciation for University staff.

“I felt like I needed to be here because I don’t really do much in my daily life to honor the workers here, who are the ones that keep this institution running,” Jonathan M. L. Rosenthal ’13 said.

To conclude the event, Reverend Jonathan C. Page, an Epps Fellow in Memorial Church, led the group in breaking bread outside University Hall to symbolize the basic sustenance that everyone needs.

“I think it’s important to support and show solidarity with the workers of this University,” Page said. “We need to advocate for those who tend to get hit the hardest—those at the bottom of the pay scale.”

—Staff writer Tara W. Merrigan can be reached at tmerrigan@college.harvard.edu.

Poster for 4/29 Walk With Workers

2010-04-27T15:51:00.001-04:00

Weekly Dig article on 4/29 Walk with Workers

2010-04-26T17:50:00.003-04:00

Walk with Workers Celebrates Labor At Harvard and Beyond

By Remeike Forbes and Colette Perold

Cambridge — At 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 29, members of the Harvard and Cambridge communities will be gathering in Harvard Yard to celebrate a value overlooked on the Harvard campus during our period of rapid budget cuts: the dignity of human labor. The Harvard Student Labor Action Movement’s “Walk With Workers” is intended to demonstrate our community’s immense respect for Harvard’s labor,and to demand just treatment for Harvard’s workers as an integral part of said community.

Thus far, Harvard has been irresponsible, uncreative, and unjust in its allocation of the cuts it makes as it responds to a declining –though still vast– endowment. Harvard’s administrators will be finalizing next year’s budget on May 30, three days after commencement. Their plan will likely follow the continued pattern of making drastic changes to the work force while most students, faculty, and workers are not on campus. (Last summer, Harvard executed a wave of mass layoffs, dismissing 275 workers without regard for the decision’s impact on Harvard and Cambridge community members.)

The issues currently affecting Harvard's workers are complex and varied across sectors of the workforce. Among custodians and dining hall workers, cuts in hours and positions have led to further speed-ups, in some cases compromising workplace safety. Among clerical and technical workers, those now unemployed struggle through in a desolate job market, while so-called temporary workers employed for over three months by the university still seek the benefits of regular employment status. Dining hall workers, who each summer undergo seasonal layoffs, are no longer supported by the administration in finding summer employment. And today, in spite of Harvard’s Wage and Benefit Parity Policy established in 2002, non-unionized workers employed by outside contractors remain without equal benefits and continue to experience workplace intimidation.

As Harvard is one of Cambridge’s largest employers, we from Harvard’s Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) are inviting the Cambridge community to take part in our action. Thus far, we as a university have seldom lived up to the ideal of using intellectual and moral resources to serve the larger community, of which we are only a part. We recognize that the implications of Harvard’s decisions extend far beyond its iron gates, and we want therefore to express our solidarity with broader community interests and to celebrate the more equitable future within our collective reach.

The “Walk With Workers” on April 29 is scheduled to feature musical acts and several speakers from among workers, students, faculty, and community members. Our gathering will begin at 4 PM outside Harvard Yard’s Massachusetts Hall, which houses the offices of University President Drew Gilpin Faust and other administrators. From there, we will proceed to march through the Yard, highlighting the contributions of workers to the various facets of the university and to the community at large.

In light of the recent Cambridge City Council resolution requesting that Harvard and MIT cease any further layoffs and cuts, it is clear that community voices are united in the belief that labor is our shared concern. If any Cambridge community leaders would like to speak at the action, please contact Colette Perold at cperold@gmail.com. For more information on SLAM and the event, please visit our new website at www.harvardslam.org.

Remeike Forbes and Colette Perold are juniors at Harvard University and members of the Student Labor Action Movement.

Video of 3/25 No Layoffs picket

2010-04-01T23:11:00.001-04:00

Images from 3/25 No Layoffs Protest

2010-03-31T15:51:00.008-04:00

“Layoffs Are Not the New Crimson” - HUCTW and Supporters Rally Against Mass Layoffs at Harvard

2010-03-31T10:51:00.000-04:00

“Layoffs Are Not the New Crimson” - HUCTW and Supporters Rally Against Mass Layoffs at Harvard

From OpenMediaBoston.org

by Ana Traynin (Staff), Mar-30-10

Cambridge, MA - About 80 people rallied outside the Holyoke Center administration building at Harvard University early Thursday evening in support for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers. The group gathered to protest the recent announcement of five more union employees losing their jobs at the Sackler Museum at the end of June. The rally also expressed outrage at the continued layoff trend, highlighting the loss of over 340 union jobs since last year, last spring’s forced early-retirement offers and the hiring of temporary employees. It was the latest demonstration in the ongoing No Layoffs Campaign at Harvard.

Led by HUCTW Widener library representative Geoff Carens, the demonstration also attracted, among others, members of the USWA Local 8751 Boston School Bus Drivers Union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement (BAAM), the Boston Socialist Alternative and the Harvard Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM).

“Now, we have a problem in our union because our laid-off union members – some of them haven’t found work at all and their jobs ended in June,” Carens announced at the beginning of the rally. “And a lot of other laid-off workers are having to work as temps without any sick time, any vacation time or meaningful benefits because they can’t get union jobs.”

Carens went on to describe the reasons he believes the university has no justification for the recent round of layoffs.

“Harvard University, in just the last quarter – in three months – collected $121 million in federal stimulus money. Last year, the University took in $600 million in gifts. And the endowment remains $26 billion, the largest endowment of any university on Earth. They are considered to be a non-profit. A non-profit that is sitting on a pile of money, $26 billion! What kind of non-profit is that?”

The rally picketed in a circle for nearly an hour outside the Holyoke Center building, chanting slogans such as “Harvard Workers Under Attack! What Do We Do? Stand Up, Fight Back!” and “Worker Student Power Power!” Several passersby stopped to take literature and show support.

Following the picketing, Carens again addressed the group and introduced other speakers, which included a member of the bus drivers union, other HUTCW representatives and Harvard SLAM members.
Phebe Eckfeldt, HUCTW representative and admissions office worker spoke about the demand for transparency about Harvard’s financial situation.

“We say, this is an educational institution, it’s not a giant hedge fund,” she said. “The staff – we should be the ones to audit Harvard’s books.”

Eckfeldt went on to address what the union sees as discrimination and human rights violations against laid-off workers.

“We have to make sure that Harvard doesn’t divide us by racism, by sexism, by agism, by lesbian and gay and trans bigotry,” she said. “Workers were laid off by sexist, racist managers who used the layoffs to get rid of women and get rid of people of color.”

Eckfeldt closed her speech by noting that the UN Human Rights Constitution guarantees a job as a right.
A Harvard SLAM member discussed the recent changes the group has observed in campus awareness of labor issues.

“The student body is waking up a little bit ,” she said. “The faculty is asking ‘Where is all the outrage?’ and they’ve been asking it in their own offices and not realizing that a lot of other faculty members are asking this. And we’re now piecing them all together, which is really exciting so I think this is going really great places.”
She also addressed SLAM’s philosophy in regards to working within the Harvard community.

“We are of the profound belief that this campus is not just students, it is not just faculty and it is not just HMC, a corporation. It is a giant community of people that are all equally integral to how this place works.”
To close off the rally, members of the Industrial Workers of the World led the gathered demonstrators in a rendition of union anthem “Solidarity Forever.”

Speaking after the rally, Jane Williams, another SLAM member, talked about why her group came out to the union demonstration.

“SLAM is opposed to layoffs and believes that Harvard can take creative alternatives to layoffs so we’re here to show our support,” Williams said.

Carens felt optimistic about the turnout for the rally, which had been planned weeks in advance.
“I was so thrilled that this many people came out and I think it’s a very hopeful sign for the future.”
HUCTW is currently negotiating a new contract with the university, with the current three-year agreement expiring at the end of June. Eckfeldt explained that the timing makes this demonstration particularly important.
“We wanted to come up with a show of union strength to tell Harvard that we will not accept any concessions, any cutbacks, any more layoffs,” Eckfeldt said. “We’re also here because whatever we demand as workers gets back to the students in a beneficial way. They have cut libraries, they have closed libraries, they have cut library hours, they don’t have hot breakfast anymore. They have cut back on the resources on the faculty. So all of these things negatively impact the students. That’s why we’ve united with the students and vice versa and also other unions on the campus who are facing layoffs and cutbacks.”

In an email response to the reaction against the upcoming layoff of five Sackler Museum workers, Daron Manoogian, Director of Communications at the Harvard University Art Museums, noted the summer museum renovations.

“The Harvard Art Museum is operating in a limited capacity while construction crews carry out a major renovation of the facilities on Quincy Street, and beginning July 1 the Sackler Museum galleries will be closed on Sundays and Mondays. The limited gallery space and reduction in operating hours means that we need fewer staff in our Security and Visitor Services departments during the renovation. Museum officials and the University's Labor Relations team are already working through the established impact bargaining process with union representatives to address these changes, and we are committed to doing what we can under existing labor contracts to minimize the impact these changes will have on a small number of museum employees.”
William Murphy, Director of Labor & Employee Relations did not respond to requests for comment by press time. Kevin Galvin, Director of News and Media Relations at Harvard University declined to comment on the rally.

Text of flyer for 3/25 No Layoffs protest

2010-03-07T15:50:00.001-05:00

Harvard workers say: No more layoffs! No more furloughs!

Last year Harvard laid off hundreds of employees. Between the layoffs, and an early retirement “offer” made amid constant threats of job cuts, there are now 340 fewer workers in clerical union jobs than there were last year. Outsourced custodians have also been pushed out of their jobs. Dining service workers recently endured a January with virtually no salary or any unemployment benefits. Clerical workers face mandatory furloughs and the conversion of full-year positions into “seasonal” jobs, meaning summers off without pay, or any ability to collect unemployment.

With a still-massive endowment of $26 billion, Harvard does not need to make these hurtful cuts! Union activists call on Harvard to open its books and try to prove they are necessary. Recently five union members in the Sackler Museum were told they will be laid off July 1. This may be Harvard testing the waters to see if they can impose another mass layoff. Campus workers will not accept the loss of more union jobs!

RALLY! Thursday March 25, 5 p.m.

Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave., steps from Harvard MBTA & next to Au Bon Pain, Harvard Sq. Cambridge

More layoffs announced! 3/25 protest planned

2010-02-24T13:57:00.003-05:00

Five (non-HUCTW) union members at the Sackler museum have been notified they will be laid off. Their last day at work will be June 30. This is likely just the beginning of another wave of destructive, unnecessary job cuts by Harvard. According to the clerical union leadership, there are about 340 (7%) fewer staff members in HUCTW jobs than there were a year ago. Activists in my local will not accept the loss of more union jobs!

Today HUCTW members in the No Layoffs Campaign met to discuss the situation. We set a tentative date of Thursday March 25 at 5 p.m. for our next public demonstration (barring any unforeseen conflicts). We are eager to do joint work with all who are interested to build for this action. We plan aggressive flyering and outreach leading up to the event.

The No Layoffs Campaign is sticking to our clear demands: No layoffs, no furloughs, rehire the laid-off workers. Today we talked about the need to say publicly to Harvard: Open your books! Prove that these hurtful cuts are somehow needed to ensure the viability of the richest university anywhere.

FAS "Slims" Budget

2010-02-24T10:39:00.001-05:00

Though FAS Slims Down Budget, Work Lies Ahead
Alumni donations and improved financial markets help FAS close deficit

By Noah S. Rayman and Elyssa A. L. Spitzer, CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Published: Wednesday, February 03, 2010

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has reduced its deficit to $80 million, signifying a drop that FAS Dean Michael D. Smith credited at yesterday’s Faculty meeting to alumni donations, improvements in the international financial market, and last year’s cost-cutting measures.

At an open forum last September, Smith said that FAS would seek to reduce its deficit to $90 million for the fiscal year ending in 2010—a planned decrease of $20 million that the administration has exceeded by $10 million, according to its most recent estimates.

“I am actually very pleased,” Smith said yesterday. “Several times I had to ask Leslie [A. Kirwan ’79, FAS Dean for Administration and Finance], ‘Really?’”

Despite the good news, Smith said that much remains to be done to close the remaining $80 million deficit—an obstacle he called “huge”—and that the strategy for making cuts will be “relatively unchanged” from last year.

Last July, a new legislation passed in Massachusetts permitted Harvard to tap into its most recently endowed funds, which had fallen in value to less than the amount bequeathed by the donor and are considered “underwater.” Though the law’s passage arrived too late to help in last year’s budgeting process, Smith said FAS may tap into those funds this year.

In addition, University President Drew G. Faust said at yesterday’s meeting that a new capital campaign was on the horizon for the University, which has not had one in over a decade—“an eternity” for a school of higher education, she said.

Capital campaigns tend to have an initial “quiet phase,” during which the University assesses its fund raising opportunities and the types of gifts it may expect, according to Faust.
“In this environment, we need to be particularly sensitive because our donors were hit, as were we,” Faust said.

Though FAS departments and administrative units were urged last year to budget for a 15 percent decrease in expenditure, they will not be asked this year to cut their budgets by a certain percentage, according to Smith. Instead, the units will work with the administration to make strategic cuts—in acknowledgment of the consideration that some places have less fat left to trim than others.

In a lengthy PowerPoint presentation, Smith credited the generation of a myriad of budgetary recommendations to the six FAS working groups created last May and the Idea Bank Web site, to which 275 individuals have submitted suggestions.

Among the ideas posted—none of which have yet been approved but will see further discussion—were renting out the Student Organization Center at Hilles during the summer, admitting more Master’s students, and leasing some of the University’s space in Allston.

Smith also announced that the Registrar’s office will undergo a thorough IT redesign in coming years to ensure the alignment of its technical capabilities with FAS’ academic offerings. The site does not currently have the capacity to cross-list courses, according to Smith.

NEW NAME FOR DEPARTMENT
The Faculty voted yesterday to change the name of the Department of Literature and Comparative Literature into the Department of Comparative Literature.

Department Chair David N. Damrosch said that the department—as well as the Faculty Council—unanimously approved the name change. The current name “seems to all of us on the faculty to represent a kind of transitional phase in the merging of these two programs,” Damrosch said in an interview.
The literature department was formed nearly four years ago through a merger of the undergraduate concentration in literature and the graduate program in comparative literature.

In October, faculty members discussed changing the name of the Extension School to the “Harvard School of Continuing and Professional Studies.” The faculty held off on voting, and did not discuss it at the following meeting in December. No official mention of the name change has been made since.

DIGITAL ACCESS TO SCHOLARSHIP
At the Faculty meeting, Director of the Office for Scholarly Communication Stuart M. Shieber encouraged the faculty to continue uploading their work to the repository site Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard, which provides open access to faculty research papers.

Since the repository’s unveiling early in the fall, users have downloaded over 70,000 articles from nearly one-third of the FAS faculty, according to Shieber.

—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu
—Staff writer Elyssa A.L. Spitzer can be reached at spitzer@fas.harvard.edu.

Harvard received over $600 million in gifts in 2009

2010-02-04T15:45:00.000-05:00

Gifts to Major Colleges Decline
By Elias J. Groll, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Donations to American colleges and universities fell nearly 12 percent during the fiscal year ending last June, the steepest decline in fundraising since the mid-1970s and a direct result of the recent recession, according to a report released by the Council for Aid to Education yesterday.
Charitable giving to Harvard beat the national average, declining eight percent for a total of $602 million in donations.

Harvard had the second highest amount of donations of any college or university, following Stanford University’s total of $640 million.
Stanford and Harvard far outpaced the competition, with Cornell trailing in third place with $447 million.
The 20 universities with the largest donations ended the fiscal year with an average 11.8 percent decline in funds raised, barely beating the national average decline of 11.9 percent.
Liberal arts colleges were particularly hard hit by the decrease in charitable giving, seeing an 18.3 percent decline in gifts.
More recent University fundraising numbers than those in the report are not available, according to Ed Sevilla, executive director of strategic communications for the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development.
Tamara E. Rogers ’74, the University’s chief fundraiser, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Martin Shell, vice president for university development at Stanford, told BusinessWeek yesterday that Stanford’s high level of donations was the result of strong relationships between the university and its alumni community.
But Ann M. Kaplan, the director of the survey, told The Crimson yesterday that although outreach by development offices is crucial for long term success, it is less integral in determining donation levels in the short term.
Charitable giving tends to correlate with the stock market and broader economic performance, Kaplan said. She said that this year’s decline in giving is not surprising given the past year’s economic performance.
The magnitude of the recent recession has raised fears among some economists that Americans might significantly alter their spending patterns, shifting away from the high levels of consumption that have characterized recent years of economic growth.
But John J. Havens, a professor at Boston College and an expert in philanthropy, said that such a potential shift is unlikely to affect gifts to universities in the long term.
“I don’t see this as a definite permanent or structural shift—most people that we deal with are still committed to their philanthropy,” Havens said.
“If there’s a major redistribution of wealth we could see a structural change, but I don’t see that as a major issue,” he said.
—Staff writer Elias J. Groll can be reached at egroll@fas.harvard.edu.

PICKET supporting dennis prater and against job insecurity

2010-02-03T13:59:00.005-05:00

PICKET against job insecurity at Harvard, Thurs 1/28 @ 5 p.m.

2010-01-25T18:42:00.001-05:00

Hundreds of Harvard's dining service workers just endured most of January without any pay or unemployment benefits. Many laid-off clerical workers still can't get re-hired, despite months of searching for open positions. Others face long unpaid furloughs, and/or the conversion of their jobs into "seasonal" ones--meaning summers off without pay! Aggravating these problems is the abuse of temp employment. According to the clerical workers' contract, if a temp works 17.5 hrs/wk or more for over 3 months, the position is supposed to be changed to a union job with benefits. Instead, temps all over campus labor for many more months, or even years, without even one paid sick day. A case in point is Dennis Prater. Harvard kept Dennis in several categories of temp employment, while unfairly denying him union benefits, for almost a year, and then laid him off!

Please join us as we rally to encourage Harvard to create more union positions from temp jobs, re-hire the laid off workers, stop the furloughs and other practices that threaten the livelihoods of campus workers! Our picket will take place this Thursday, 1/28, at 5 p.m., at Holyoke Center (1350 Mass. Ave, next to Au Bon Pain, steps from the Harvard T).

Huffington Post on Harvard's Secret Seven

2010-01-14T09:49:00.000-05:00

Larry Summers, Robert Rubin: Will The Harvard Shadow Elite Bankrupt The University And The Country?

by Harry R. Lewis
Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard and former Dean of Harvard College
Posted: January 12, 2010 07:30 AM

Harvard's Secret Seven

At the heart of the new system of power, says Janine Wedel, is "a decline in loyalty to institutions" and "the proliferation of players who swoop in and out of organizations with which they are affiliated." There is no more vivid example of this phenomenon than Harvard University, which for centuries was held together by institutional loyalty. Today, that loyalty has eroded, and those at the top act much more flexibly. Yet they still enjoy almost unlimited power. Like all forms of mismanagement, Harvard's woes call for transparency and accountability. The story resonates to Washington, where Harvard's power elite is deeply entangled.

Harvard lost $11 billion from its endowment last year, plus another $2 billion by gambling with operating cash and $1 billion in bad bets on interest rate fluctuations. Harvard had been borrowing vast sums to leverage its assets and to expand its physical plant; its president, Lawrence Summers, had described as "extraordinary investments" what ordinary people would call crushing debt. The only way to balance the looming deficits was through huge investment returns. The speculating worked for a while, but when the bubble burst, Harvard was left almost insolvent.

A presidential resignation might have been expected, but Summers, the president most responsible for Harvard's unsustainable growth plan, had resigned already--he is now a top economic adviser to Barack Obama. In any case, plenty of costly mistakes were made after he left. In this era of heightened corporate accountability, one might have expected instead a shake-up of Harvard's board. But Harvard's directors are invulnerable.

Legally, the Harvard Corporation consists of the president and six "Fellows," who serve for life if they wish and cannot be unseated by anyone except themselves. In spite of the privileges it receives as a tax exempt charity, Harvard is not subject to the financial and risk disclosure rules that protect the shareholders of public corporations.

The Corporation is stunningly secretive. The members are listed on a Harvard web page--but with no contact information. Their meetings and agendas are unannounced, their decisions unreported. The Fellows, scattered across the country, are isolated from the institution they govern. Even the university's statutes--the closest thing to a constitution limiting the Corporation's discretionary power--are almost impossible to locate. The colonial-era board structure is failing the modern university.

Harvard's board is intertwined with the shadow elite of Wedel's Chapter 5: the team of experts who disastrously advised the Russian government on capitalism in the 1990s. Engaged by the U.S. to show the Russians how the West controls corruption, the advisers became models of what to avoid. Here is the Cambridge-Moscow-Washington story in a nutshell.

In 1991, Lawrence Summers became chief economist of the World Bank, moving to the Treasury Department in 1993. When Robert Rubin became Treasury Secretary in 1995, Summers became his Deputy Secretary, later succeeding him as Secretary.

In 1992, Andrei Shleifer, a Harvard professor and a close friend of Summers since Shleifer's college days at Harvard, became head of a Harvard project that directed U.S. government money for the development of the Russian economy. Tens of millions of dollars in noncompetitive U.S. contracts flowed to Harvard for Shleifer's Russian work, and his team directed the distribution of hundreds of millions more. Through the mid-1990s, complaints accumulated in Washington about self-dealing and improper investing by the Harvard team, and by mid-1997, the Harvard contracts had been canceled and the FBI had taken up the case. For two years it was before a federal grand jury.

In September, 2000, the government sued Harvard, Shleifer, and others, claiming that Shleifer was lining his own pockets and those of his wife, hedge fund manager Nancy Zimmerman--formerly a vice president at Goldman Sachs under Rubin.

Soon after, when Summers became a candidate for the Harvard presidency, Shleifer lobbied hard for him in Cambridge. Rubin assured the Fellows that the abrasiveness Summers had exhibited at Treasury was a thing of the past. They named him president--in spite of what was already known about his enabling role in the malodorous Russian affair, and the implausibility of a personality metamorphosis.

Summers did not recuse himself from the lawsuit until more than three months after his selection as president, and even then used his influence to protect Shleifer. The Fellows--including Rubin, whom Summers added to the Corporation--fought the case for years, spending upwards of $10M on lawyers. But in 2005 a federal judge found Shleifer to have conspired to defraud the government and held Harvard liable as well. To settle the civil claims, Shleifer paid the government $2M and Harvard paid $26.5M; Zimmerman's company had already paid $1.5M. Shleifer denied all wrongdoing, and Harvard disclosed nothing about any response of its own--a departure from its handling of misconduct by faculty farther from the center of power.

Summers remained close to Shleifer, yet claimed in a February 2006 faculty meeting to know too little about the scandal to have formed an opinion about it. This prevarication brought a gasp from the assembled faculty and solidified faculty opposition to the Summers presidency.

Rubin is now gone from his leadership role and his board membership at Citigroup, hauling away $126M from a firm that was $65B poorer than when he joined it, with 75,000 fewer jobs. But he remains on the Harvard board, in spite of the financial meltdowns at both Citigroup and Harvard and his poor oversight of the problematic president he persuaded Harvard to hire.

The Rubin network remains alive and well in the White House, including not just Summers but several other Rubin protégés. Among the strangest of these power loops is that the well-connected Nancy Zimmerman has turned up as a member of Summers's economic policy brain trust.

The modern power elites thrive by forgetting any regrettable past. This amnesia is easy at Harvard, where the legal fiduciaries operate in secret and need not answer for their acts. They are the antipodes of the selfless institutional servants who built Harvard and other great American enterprises, and they bear close watching.

Harvard receives $20.5m gift for new Asia studies center

2010-01-08T10:21:00.002-05:00

Harvard receives $20.5m gift for new Asia studies center

Will fund program on Indonesia

Benefactor Peter Sondakh and David T. Ellwood, Harvard Kennedy School dean, at the center’s signing ceremony. (Tony Rinaldo for The Boston Globe)

By James F. Smith Globe Staff / January 7, 2010

Indonesia is the fourth-largest country in the world and the largest Muslim-majority democracy. Yet even at Harvard University, Indonesia has remained among the less studied major Asian nations, overshadowed by China, Japan, and Vietnam.

That is about to change, thanks to a fortuitous connection between an Indonesian business magnate and the Asia expert who heads the Ash Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. A $20.5 million gift - described as one of the five largest in the school of government’s 74-year history - is funding a new Institute for Asia and a new Indonesia program.

The Kennedy School yesterday announced the gift from the Rajawali Foundation, the charitable arm of PT Rajawali Corp., one of Indonesia’s largest conglomerates. The company, founded in the early 1980s by owner and director Peter Sondakh, is a major player in cement, retailing, palm oil, hotels, and other industries.

Professor Anthony Saich, director of the renamed Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Kennedy School, said in an interview that the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia and the new Indonesia Program within it would allow an array of education and research initiatives.

“This will give us an opportunity to both bring in a new tranche of master’s degree students, and also to bring in current Indonesian officials into some of our executive programs,’’ Saich said. “We will also be running a fellows program that will bring in some of their good young academics to study with us.’’

Saich said the idea for a new institute flowed from Sondakh’s request for a competitive analysis for Indonesia similar to one that Kennedy School researchers had produced for Vietnam. Saich said he told Sondakh that he was not comfortable producing an in-depth study of Indonesia because the Kennedy School lacked the expertise on Indonesia that it had built up on Vietnam and China, for example.

So Sondakh offered to help strengthen the school’s capacity to produce high-level research on Indonesia and to strengthen its academic ties through collaboration with institutions there. The gift includes $10.5 million as an endowment for the new Asia institute, being paid over five years, and another $10 million, also spread over five years, to fund Indonesia-related activities.

“I think that one of the big advantages of this gift is that Southeast Asia generally has been poorly studied and understood across Harvard, and we have barely one or two students here a year from Indonesia,’’ Saich said. “As a result we have few contacts compared to other important countries, and little ongoing research.’’

With a population of 230 million people and 17,000 islands, Indonesia is a vibrant multiparty democracy and also a bulwark of moderate Muslim governance in Asia, combating extremists who have carried out deadly terror bombings. So the country is important strategically, not only in the region but also for its potential to influence other Muslim nations.

James F. Smith writes about Boston’s global ties. His blog is at boston.com/worldlyboston. His e-mail is jsmith@globe.com.

Crimson Editorial About FAS Spending

2009-12-16T13:15:00.003-05:00

Smith’s Senseless Spending

Increasing salaries for professors is not the best use of funds

By The Crimson Staff

Published: Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Last week, Faculty of Arts Dean Michael D. Smith announced he would lift the salary freezes placed on faculty and staff last winter by providing two percent merit-based raises to professors and increasing stipends for graduate students by three percent. The Harvard community has not been given a brief on the state of the budget since Sept. 15, so we are unsure of whether the announcement is a sign of budget security or an exception to the FAS policy of late that dictates trimming spending wherever possible. Regardless, Dean Smith’s spending decisions are misdirected. Given the numerous cuts the university has faced since the unfortunate implosion of the economy and subsequent drop in endowment value, several areas of the College need future funds more desperately than professors and graduate students.

We understand the College’s desire, which we share, to attract and retain the best faculty to Harvard in order to protect the quality of research and academics here, and we certainly recognize the value of monetary incentives. That said, we doubt that a modest raise of two percent will do much to keep professors from leaving or spark any noticeable improvements to the Harvard academic experience. Additionally, as one graduate student pointed out, the three percent stipend increase amounts to more funds for groceries but is unlikely to convince anyone to enroll in Harvard’s graduate program. Moreover, we hope that the deciding factor for why one ought to pursue an advance degree at Harvard is something other than the fact that it pays more than at other schools. Professors, moreover, have countless incentives to stay at Harvard besides economic ones.

The announcement that no additional funding will be cut from the Harvard College libraries is great news. We hope that, in the future, funds secured amidst changing budget structures will include similar measures. With any luck, the FAS’s new interest in reinstating secure spending policies will include reabsorbing laid-off staff members or reinstating cut hours as part of an effort to return services to the College and the university as a whole. The funds being directed toward professors and graduate students would conceivably have a bigger impact on the larger Harvard community if applied to initiatives such as bringing back hours in libraries and the Bureau of Study Council, serving hot breakfast, increasing hours for students who hold jobs on campus, and transitioning out of the hour reductions and furloughs many staff members face.

Harvard professors are currently the highest paid in the country, according to a report by the American Association of University Professors. When compounded with the level of prestige attendant to professorship here, most professors are deeply contented to be on the faculty of Harvard University. Similarly, many students are already eager to earn a graduate degree here; providing extra incentives need not be our priority right now. While the goal of preserving the quality of teaching and research at Harvard is an essential one, these raises will have little impact. Instead, Dean Smith should have directed FAS funds toward returning staff and services—spending for which the student benefits are much more certain.

HUCTW Election Results

2009-12-16T10:07:00.000-05:00

On December 8, 2009, HUCTW workers voted in the few elections that were contested for Union Representative and Executive Board. The slate that was put together by the No Layoffs Campaign (about which you can still find information about on this blog), did as well as could be expected: Geoff Carens, Emeka Onyeagoro and Phebe Eckfeldt were all elected as Union Reps. (Official list of winning candidates can be found here: http://www.huctw.org/elections/200912_ebd/200912_elections.htm)

Despite a severe lack of resources to campaign with (including a lack of time off), over 200 people voted for one of the No Layoffs Campaign's three candidates for executive board, and while the margins were not close, this shows a significant number of HUCTW members who support these ideas.

This was a huge opportunity to reach out to Harvard workers about the No Layoffs campaign and its firm opposition to layoffs, budget cuts and work load increases. We spoke to many of our co-workers who shared our concerns.

FAS Sees Light at End of Fiscal Tunnel

2009-12-16T09:44:00.000-05:00

Dean Smith Presents Positive Picture of FAS Finances at Faculty Meeting
Gomes makes case for faculty membership on the Corporation

By Noah S. Rayman and Elyssa A. L. Spitzer, CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Published: Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith delivered a notably optimistic financial outlook for FAS yesterday, though the University’s largest school faced a projected $110 million annual deficit as of Sept. 15.
“I believe we are beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel,” Smith said at yesterday’s Faculty meeting. “We are not done by any means yet, but it is also a start to resolve some of these questions and theoretically give some comfort to people about the direction of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.”

Meanwhile, University Provost Steven E. Hyman sought to alleviate some professors’ concerns that the Task Force on University Libraries—which released a wide-ranging blueprint for overhauling Harvard’s library system in November—is focused on change solely in the context of cutting costs.

Hyman, who usually sits quietly at Faculty meetings, found himself fielding several questions from professors yesterday about potential changes to the library system.

He defended the report’s timing, explaining that redesigning the library’s “labyrinthine” administrative system has been a topic of discussion at Harvard for over a decade and was not triggered by the recent financial crisis.

Smith said that discussions surrounding the new faculty retirement package—which was announced earlier this month as an option for professors over 65 at several schools across the University—have been in the works since he became dean in 2007.

But for all the rhetoric about an improving fiscal climate, many of the changes mentioned at yesterday’s Faculty meeting—such as the faculty retirement package and a potential overhaul of the library system—were connected to streamlining budgets.

A HARVARD PROFESSOR IN LOEB HOUSE?

Following recent news that Senior Fellow James R. Houghton ’58 has chosen to step down from the Harvard Corporation—the University’s highest governing body—Reverend Peter J. Gomes suggested that a Harvard faculty member should fill in the opening.

A Harvard professor has not held a seat on the six-member committee since former University President Derek C. Bok appointed former Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky in 1987 and Reverend Peter J. Gomes suggested that the vacancy on the Corporation could be an opportune moment for change.

“Most of us felt that we were well served by having a former professor on the Corporation,” Gomes said. “The Corporation can be a distant and disengaged body... If we ignore them, they will ignore us, and we can’t have that.”

University President Drew G. Faust asked professors to send their nominations for candidates to fill the Corporation’s newly open seat to corporationsearch@harvard.edu.

1-2-3, CHECK, CHECK

Evoking the difficulty that Smith encountered at a Faculty meeting last December where he had trouble launching a slideshow on the FAS financial crisis, Faust herself struggled with technology during yesterday’s meeting.

As she approached the microphone to award honorary degrees to recently tenured professors who do not already possess a Harvard degree, Faust realized that the stand supporting the microphone was too short for her. She attempted to adjust its height, but it did not budge.

“I give up,” Faust said, fiddling with the microphone’s knobs as faculty members chuckled. “I should have just called on the faculty from the School of Engineering [and Applied Sciences].”

—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Elyssa A.L. Spitzer can be reached at spitzer@fas.harvard.edu.

Images from 12/2 action for laid-off workers to be rehired, and against furloughs!

2009-12-06T14:27:00.003-05:00

Workers, Students Rally Against Layoffs

2009-12-03T13:12:00.000-05:00

Workers, Students Rally Against Layoffs
Union members and supporters express discontent with budget cuts
By Jacob D. Roberts, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Published: Thursday, December 03, 2009
Rally for Workers

Harvard workers and their supporters rally outside of the Holyoke Center yesterday evening. Rally participants chanted slogans and held signs that urged Harvard to rehire laid-off workers.

Several dozen Harvard employees and students rallied outside the Holyoke Center last night, protesting the budget cuts that may dim the holiday season for some University staff.

Members of the local branch of the Service Employees International Union, which represents security guards and janitors, joined other unions representing technical and clerical workers and dining hall staff, waving picket signs and chanting as University administrators streamed out of the Holyoke Center at the end of the workday.

Union officers addressed passers-by on a portable P.A. system, trying to encourage them to participate in the rally as they walked past.

“Most people have no idea how they are going to pay their bills, no idea how they are going to feed their family!” said Edward B. Childs, a cook in Adams House and the Co-Chief Steward of Unite Here Local 26.

Emeka Onyeagoro, a library employee running for Widener union representative of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, said that University staff were most concerned by the prospect of additional furloughs, which require them to take an unpaid period of leave while still paying out of pocket toward their benefit packages.

Other workers protested the replacement of full-time staff with part-time student workers. Desiree A. Goodwin, a library assistant at the Graduate School of Design, said that this meant students would be deprived of a dedicated library staff, and laid-off workers would lose their primary source of income.

According to Onyeagoro, fewer than half of the 119 workers in HUCTW who were laid off earlier this year have found employment elsewhere at Harvard, even though they had been promised priority consideration for other positions.

Harvard announced in June that it would lay off a total of 275 employees from across the University, in an effort to cut labor expenses after a precipitous decline in the value of the endowment.

Members of the Student Labor Action Movement carried a sign that read “The Harvard Corporation Stole Christmas,” and one pedestrian who noticed the student criticized the University for what he considered “unconscionable” actions.

“Harvard should be setting an example, according to principle,” said Mike McGann, an Ohio resident visiting Cambridge who observed the rally for a few minutes.

Several students passing by expressed sympathy for the University employees, but they questioned the effectiveness of the protests.

“The spirit is more impressive than the substance,” said Patrick W. Spence ’12. “These things tend to be a little peevish and ineffective.”

No More Layoffs - Rehire all laid off workers - Rally - Wednesday, Dec 2, 5pm

2009-11-30T10:53:00.001-05:00

Hey Harvard--NO MORE LAYOFFS!

Rehire the Laid-Off Workers! No Furloughs!

RALLY! Wed., Dec 2, 5pm

Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave. Cambridge

(next to Au Bon Pain, Harvard MBTA stop)

Harvard University’s highly-speculative investments caused its endowment to soar during boom times. Predictably, when the market tanked, Harvard’s risky bets on private equity, hedge funds, etc., lost some money. Refusing to resort to pay cuts for top administrators like many other institutions, Harvard has chosen to balance its books mainly on the backs of lower-paid workers. Hundreds of staffers have been pushed to retire early amid ominous noises about budget cuts and potential job losses. In June, Harvard announced it would lay off 275 clerical and administrative employees. At least 115 members of Harvard’s largest union, HUCTW/AFSCME local 3650, were laid off, not counting term employees whose contracts were not extended. Five months later, less than half the laid off union members have found non-temp positions at Harvard, despite supposedly having preference for open jobs. Some union members now face furloughs (weeks of time off without pay), when they must continue to pay their usual deductions for health-care, etc. despite getting no paycheck!

Harvard’s endowment is still $26 billion! Despite this huge pile of money, Harvard enjoys “non-profit” tax status and doesn’t pay the taxes that ordinary businesses have to pay. We rally to say that Harvard owes the surrounding communities more than layoffs and furloughs! For more information pls. email nolayoffscampaign@yahoo.com

FAS to Decrease Size of Faculty (Harvard Crimson)

2009-11-29T17:37:00.002-05:00

FAS To Decrease Size of Faculty

Hiring to continue but not at same rate; retirement packages to be offered

19 Nov. 2009

By Noah S. Rayman and Elyssa A. L. Spitzer, CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS

Dean Michael D. Smith said he will shrink the number of professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, ending a decade-long expansion in order to offset the school’s $110 million deficit.

In an interview, Smith said FAS would achieve the cuts by leaving vacancies unfilled and offering early-retirement packages to professors. He said the scale of the reduction hasn’t been determined.

FAS is currently looking to fill 31 faculty positions and will continue to make new hires—but not “at the rate that would maintain the size of our faculty,” Smith said. There are now 720 associate professors and professors in FAS, an increase of 20 percent since 2000.

The Faculty even grew during last year’s hiring freeze, though Smith said the increase was a result of employment offers that predated the school’s financial troubles.Smith said that he and other administrators are still working out the details of the faculty retirement package. Among the issues that need to be resolved are which Faculty members will be offered packages and how to encourage retirement without making the offer too generous.
Tenure and Harvard’s lack of a mandatory retirement age will also complicate the process.
“There are some people who would say that they are highly effective teachers at the age of 70, and there are people who are never going to be highly effective teachers or producers,” said Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds. “So age doesn’t get you too far. It’s too blunt an instrument.”
Last year, the University offered an early-retirement package for staff members aged 55 or older who had worked at Harvard for at least 10 years. Bill Jaeger, director of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, called the staff buyouts effective and said trimming the ranks of professors “might be even more important” for cutting costs.
“A voluntary program with the faculty could be a good way to avoid other types of cuts that could be more traumatic and more harmful,” Jaeger said.
Administrators first floated the possibility of retirement packages for professors in April. The Harvard faculty has grown slowly older since American universities were barred from implementing mandatory retirement ages in 1994. Previously, universities could force professors to retire at age 70.
Smith said that not all departments will be equally affected by the reductions. In particular, student-faculty ratios will serve as “one of the inputs” in determining which faculty searches to pursue, he said.
Some departments are plagued with high student-faculty ratios that result in large class sizes and little interaction between students and professors. The economics department, for example, was forced to cut its junior seminars last year because it did not have enough faculty members to teach the courses.
Smith said that he is currently in talks with the department about ways to bring back the seminars, whose cancellation students protested last spring.
—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Elyssa A.L. Spitzer can be reached at spitzer@fas.harvard.edu.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/11/19/faculty-professors-smith-retirement/

Harvard ignored warnings about investments

2009-11-29T14:41:00.000-05:00

Harvard ignored warnings about investments
Advisers told Summers, others not to put so much cash in market; losses hit $1.8b

By Beth Healy
Globe Staff / November 29, 2009

It happened at least once a year, every year. In a roomful of a dozen Harvard University financial officials, Jack Meyer, the hugely successful head of Harvard’s endowment, and Lawrence Summers, then the school’s president, would face off in a heated debate. The topic: cash and how the university was managing - or mismanaging - its basic operating funds.

Through the first half of this decade, Meyer repeatedly warned Summers and other Harvard officials that the school was being too aggressive with billions of dollars in cash, according to people present for the discussions, investing almost all of it with the endowment’s risky mix of stocks, bonds, hedge funds, and private equity. Meyer’s successor, Mohamed El-Erian, would later sound the same warnings to Summers, and to Harvard financial staff and board members.

“Mohamed was having a heart attack,’’ said one former financial executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of angering Harvard and Summers. He considered the cash investment a “doubling up’’ of the university’s investment risk.

But the warnings fell on deaf ears, under Summers’s regime and beyond. And when the market crashed in the fall of 2008, Harvard would pay dearly, as $1.8 billion in cash simply vanished. Indeed, it is still paying, in the form of tighter budgets, deferred expansion plans, and big interest payments on bonds issued to cover the losses.

So how did one of the world’s great universities err so badly in something so basic? It is a story with many actors, the story of an institution that grew complacent as its endowment soared ever higher - an institution that, when the crunch hit, was operating on financial auto-pilot, with many key players gone, and those remaining inattentive, in retrospect, to the risks ahead.

“Investing cash alongside the endowment was a long-held strategy that we didn’t decide to change until early 2008,’’ said James F. Rothenberg, Harvard’s treasurer - a part-time, unpaid role. He said the biggest mistake was not to have taken some of the cash off the table, and placed it in safer accounts, as trouble started brewing in the markets and the economy. “We all can look back now and say we wish we did something different,’’ he said.

In the Summers years, from 2001 to 2006, nothing was on auto-pilot. He was the unquestioned commander, a dominating personality with the talent to move a balkanized institution like Harvard, but also a man unafflicted, former colleagues say, with self-doubt in matters of finance.

Certainly, when it came to handling Harvard’s cash account, the former US Treasury secretary had no doubts. Widely considered one of the most brilliant economists of his generation, Summers pushed to invest 100 percent of Harvard’s cash with the endowment and had to be argued down to 80 percent, financial executives say. The cash account grew to $5.1 billion during his tenure, more than the entire endowment of all but a dozen or so colleges and universities.

Summers, now head of President Obama’s economic team, declined to be quoted on his handling of Harvard finances. A friend of his who is familiar with Harvard finances said Summers was warning of growing risks in the global markets by 2007, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of Summers’s current position, said, “In the years after Summers left, market conditions and Harvard’s liquidity changed dramatically. The university’s financial strategies could have and should have changed with them.’’

Investing cash from the general operating account in the endowment wasn’t new under Summers, nor was it unique to Harvard. It had been done as far back as the 1980s at the university, officials say, but on a smaller scale. The aggressive investment of cash accounts is part of how the university has long run its “central bank,’’ an account that holds funds from its various schools and pays them a modest US Treasury rate of return. The “bank,’’ in turn, has invested the lion’s share of that money with the endowment, generating returns that are used to pay for shared needs, like graduate housing and financial aid.

The strategy paid off handsomely for years, as the endowment reaped big gains, providing Harvard presidents with a checkbook for ambitious efforts. Under Neil Rudenstine, Harvard’s president from 1991 to 2001, cash was heavily invested in the endowment and surged from $290 million to $2 billion. Under Summers, the figure more than doubled again, according to a compilation of the data obtained by the Globe. The big project on Summers’s agenda: Harvard’s expansion across the river, into Allston.

Summers had a huge influence over Harvard money matters during his tenure, according to several people who worked with him. Known for his love of intellectual debate, he would hear out the opinions of others but ultimately was forceful in his own views. He was more financially sophisticated than most other Harvard presidents, and more deeply involved in decisions, from how to maximize returns on Harvard’s cash to using financial instruments called swaps, to hedge against the risk of rising interest rates - a hedge that would ultimately backfire.

In Harvard’s 2001-2002 financial report, Summers’s opening letter states, “During my first year as President, we took the opportunity to look anew at some of Harvard’s financial procedures to make sure we are making the most of our resources.’’ He closes the letter noting the need for “prudent fiscal management.’’

Despite the warnings from Meyer, Harvard Management’s chief for 15 years, Summers felt the cash risk was worth taking at the time, according to people who know him. He was not the sole decision maker on the matter: Members of the financial staff, a broader financial advisory committee, and the university’s elite six-member board all weighed in. But Summers was a powerful advocate, and with the returns so good for so long, there was little support for exercising caution.

And soon, Harvard would enter a period of upheaval. Meyer left in the fall of 2005, after clashing with Summers over the compensation of the endowment staff. And Summers announced his own resignation in February 2006 - as it happened, just days after the arrival of Meyer’s successor, El-Erian. A month later, Harvard’s top in-house financial official, Ann E. Berman, vice president for finance, also resigned.

Summers was gone by July that year, but not before El-Erian issued a new round of warnings about what he saw as an alarming amount of cash being put at risk in the endowment pool, according to several people who were there. El-Erian left Harvard after just two years, at the end of 2007, to return to his old bond firm, PIMCO. Both he and Meyer declined to comment on whether the cash concerns contributed to their decision to leave.

For other university officials, warnings about Harvard’s finances were easy to gloss over. The endowment had been a virtual money machine for more than 15 years, and the markets were still rising in 2006. And after Summers resigned, forced out by an angry faculty after comments about women lagging in the sciences and other controversies, there were more urgent fires to tend to.

Derek Bok, a former Harvard president from the ’70s and ’80s, took over as interim president. He was, by his own admission, unplugged from the complexities of the financial picture.

“I concentrated on academic issues,’’ Bok said in a Globe interview. He said that his strength was not in investments and that Harvard had an experienced treasurer and board to oversee those issues. “I think they would have come to see me if there were really important changes,’’ he said.

Harry Lewis, a Harvard professor and a former dean of the college, attributes the failure to address the university’s financial risks to the ancient structure of the Harvard corporation, which functions as its board. “With only the six fellows plus the president, there is inevitably going be a lot of deference to the people who seem to have the most authority, especially if the president is strong-willed,’’ Lewis said. “Whether or not anyone in particular made a mistake in this situation, it shows a fundamental structural problem. The power is just in the hands of too few people with too little accountability.’’

The cash in the general operating account exceeded $6 billion by the time Bok and El-Erian left. Problems were starting to surface in housing and the credit markets in 2007. But still the cash policy went unchanged. It wasn’t until early 2008 that a chorus of concern was rising from members of the financial staff, professors on advisory committees, and the board. They decided to start pulling some of the cash out of the endowment - in $250 million chunks - quarterly, according to Harvard officials briefed on the plan. But it was too late. They got one slug of money out in March 2008, and then the markets seized up.

The very thing that the former endowment chiefs had worried about and warned of for so long then came to pass. Amid plunging global markets, Harvard would lose not only 27 percent of its $37 billion endowment in 2008, but $1.8 billion of the general operating cash - or 27 percent of some $6 billion invested. Harvard also would pay $500 million to get out of the interest-rate swaps Summers had entered into, which imploded when rates fell instead of rising. The university would have to issue $1.5 billion in bonds to shore up its cash position, on top of another $1 billion debt sale. And there were layoffs, pay freezes, and deep, university-wide budget cuts.

While the global markets were in freefall in September 2008, the nation’s most prominent university, with the largest endowment, had barely enough financial hands on deck.

On campus, Daniel Shore was technically the guy at the controls. He was acting chief financial officer and would formally get the job, and the vice president’s title, in October. He was the third person to hold the job in as many years. The head of the endowment was new. And the Goldman Sachs & Co. veteran whom President Drew Faust had just hired to report to her on the university’s finances, Edward Forst, was summoned to Washington for a month to help with the federal bank bailout.

Rothenberg, the treasurer, was home in Los Angeles, tending to his day job as a mutual fund executive. Since becoming treasurer in 2004, in the Summers era, Rothenberg, 63, has made 65 cross-country flights to Cambridge, slightly more often than monthly, according to a tally by his assistant. He handles other Harvard business by telephone, including early-morning conference calls with overseers. But he earns his living as chairman of Capital Research and Management Co., a $900 billion-asset investment firm that manages the American Funds and is admired for producing steadier returns than many rivals, and losing less in bad times. Rothenberg is also a portfolio manager, personally handling billions of dollars in two giant funds, the Growth Fund of America and the Washington Mutual Investors Fund.

In a March 2007 interview, Rothenberg told the Harvard Gazette, “Most investors invest looking in the rearview mirror. The problem with that is you make the most money by anticipating change. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about how the world will look three or four years from now.’’

Even with the losses, Rothenberg said, the cash strategy has earned Harvard returns averaging 8.9 percent over the past 10 years. He and other university officials say the cash pool is still ahead of where it would have been, if invested more conservatively all along. But no one could be specific about what that net gain has been.

Harvard won’t stop investing the cash entirely, Rothenberg said, but the past year has “taught us a great deal about the critical importance of maintaining an appropriate focus on risk and liquidity,’’ he told the Globe.

No one wants to repeat the black day when university officials had to swallow hard and reveal a $1.8 billion loss. For Harvard’s 30 overseers, that news came as a surprise, a full year after they’d been told to expect losses in the endowment. It came at an Oct. 4 meeting on campus, just days before the university disclosed the news publicly.

Said one overseer, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk about Harvard business: “It wasn’t a happy thing.’’

Beth Healy can be reached at bhealy@globe.com.

Emeka Onyeagoro

2009-11-16T00:19:00.001-05:00

Emeka Onyeagoro
Candidate for HUCTW
Union Rep, Widener

I'm running for Widener Rep because of my strong commitment to social justice. For nearly two decades I've participated in community-oriented activism and organizing. As a Union Rep, I will keep employees updated about union resources and actions. I'll also do everything I can to help union members who have problems on the job.

Before I joined HUCTW, I was elected Shop Steward here at Harvard, as a Security Officer in SEIU (Service Employees' International Union) local 615. I acted as a source of information, and investigated and handled grievances. I won major, precedent-setting cases, including reversing terminations, and recovered union members' lost wages and vacation days. I fought for and won unemployment benefits and back pay for my fellow workers. I also served on the union negotiating team at our contract talks with management, which achieved seniority rights, much-improved wages, and an effective grievance procedure with arbitration, among other benefits.

During the struggle for our first contract, I helped organize large "living wage" rallies on campus. I worked closely with pro-labor students, and with members of HUCTW who supported the security officers. I maintain those links today, and believe that cross-union solidarity and work with sympathetic student organizations can help HUCTW too! We are always strongest when we stand together.

Recently I have participated in the No Layoffs Campaign, initiated by activists in HUCTW. I feel our union should publicly oppose layoffs. We need to make sure that the laid-off workers get rehired! I also believe we should push strongly for seniority rights, which help prevent age discrimination, and make jobs worth keeping, in our next contract. A no layoffs clause in the contract would be a big step forward, and I will advocate for this. Harvard still has incredible resources and I believe we should bargain from a position of strength, and push for good raises and a cost-of-living adjustment, which we need in such an expensive city.

On December 8, I hope you will consider voting for me, and the other members of the No Layoffs Campaign. Together we will win! Please feel free to contact me at eonyeag@fas.harvard.edu.

Phebe Eckfeldt

2009-11-16T00:17:00.003-05:00

PHEBE ECKFELDT
FOR UNION REP
Admissions and Financial Aid

A JOB IS A RIGHT! NO LAYOFFS!

I pledge to give 100% to fighting for your job, your wages, benefits and union rights against Harvard's layoffs, cutbacks, drastically-increased workloads and union-busting. I will fight for a real grievance procedure that includes binding arbitration. The version of a grievance procedure we have now can take forever, and typically doesn't help union members who have problems. Our years on the job need to be honored. I feel we should demand dignity and respect.

Harvard is an educational institution, not a bank! Such figures as Ed Forst from Goldman-Sachs, and Robert Rubin, from Goldman-Sachs and Citigroup, have been appointed to the Harvard Corporation. the big investment banks continue to control Harvard's policies. After very risky investments in hedge funds and private equity, etc., made the endowment soar during economic boom times, Harvard naturally lost money when the market crashed. We must demand that Citigroup and Goldman-Sachs stop gambling away the endowment funds on the stock market and get out of our school. There is still $26 billion in the endowment, but Harvard is crying poor and taking it out on us workers. Money for education, staff, the community and student and faculty services, NOT the banks!

We need an active, responsive union with monthly membership meetings, a monthly bulletin and working committees. An informed membership is a strong membership, and a democratic union is a strong union. Members need a direct voice in the upcoming contract negotiations.

It's time to build a fighting union -- an uncompromising voice for the rank and file.

We need to fight racism, sexism and anti-lesbian/gay/bi/trans bigotry on the job and in the community. AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!

Steve Fake

2009-11-16T00:16:00.000-05:00

Steve Fake
Candidate for HUCTW
Union Representative, School of Public Health

Genevieve Butler

2009-11-15T22:04:00.001-05:00

Genevieve Butler
Candidate for HUCTW
Union Representative, Social and Political Sciences

Desiree Goodwin

2009-11-15T21:51:00.000-05:00

Desiree Goodwin
Candidate for HUCTW Executive Board:
Professional Region

Joshua Koritz

2009-11-15T21:46:00.001-05:00

Joshua Koritz
Candidate for HUCTW/AFSCME 3650
FAS Sciences Executive Board
Applied and Physical Sciences Union Representative

Harvard has the money to afford no layoffs, no workload increases and decent wages. I will fight for 6% raises on top of a cost of living ajustment tied to local cost of living indexes.
I want to build open lines of communication and will lend a hand to anyone who has any issue with managers or anyone else. With the continued growth of SEAS, I will work with other union members to address increasing work loads.
I have worked in the Gordon McKay Library in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) for 4 years. In that time, I have attended every possible HUCTW meeting, been active in the No Layoffs Campaign, and have worked on solidarity campaigns with other unions at Harvard and in the greater Boston area.

Geoff Carens

2009-11-15T20:45:00.015-05:00

GEOFF CARENS
FOR WIDENER
UNION REP + FAS/ARTS
EXECUTIVE BOARD

HUCTW members active in the No Layoffs Campaign are running for Executive Board in three out of five campus regions. We're fielding candidates for Union Representative in several areas. The No Layoffs Campaign seeks to send the message that our union doesn't have to accept job losses, worsening conditions and low raises.

Since the rumors began last spring that union members would face layoffs, we've organized a series of effective rallies that have gotten local, national, and international press. Our actions and the resulting media coverage have put healthy pressure on the university, and may have dissuaded management from making deeper cuts. Serious problems remain, and part of the reason I'm running for office is to call attention to them, and start a dialog about how we can make progress as a union.

Of the (at least) 115 HUCTW members who were laid off this year, only 49 have been placed in regular (not temp) positions. We need a major initiative to get laid-off workers re-hired! Åfter so many employees have retired or lost their jobs, others who remain face increased workloads, often without any additional compensation. Overtime has been eliminated in many departments. Job descriptions have been rewritten. Some HUCTW members have even been "furloughed" --forced to take time off without pay! We need advocates who will represent union members forcefully and effectively. As a Rep, I fight hard, always on the worker's side, and I get good results and win victories.

Harvard will push for concessions in our next contract. I believe we need to counter any pressure to accept less with a strong, determined approach. Our union should publicly oppose layoffs. We should push for good raises, seniority rights, and a cost-of-living adjustment. The Executive Board is the body that currently makes the major decisions on union policy. As a member of the E-Board, I will argue for an assertive approach that puts the needs of union members first.

The E-Board and Rep elections will be held December 8. Between now and then, candidates from the No Layoffs Campaign will be meeting as many union members as we can. To learn more about our effort to strengthen the union, and elect leaders who will be responsive to union members' wants and needs, please contact me anytime at geoff.carens@gmail.com.

-Geoff Carens

Open Letter to AFSCME

2009-11-13T17:51:00.001-05:00

Dear AFSCME,
I have a concern about the union election process at Harvard University as administered by the HUCTW incumbents. For the past several years in several elections the incumbents have given nominated challengers paper printout mailing lists with no e-mail addresses on it, and a lot of outdated addresses as well. As part of a reform group that organized rallies against the layoffs, and compiled information on laid off staff, I noticed on this list the names of several people who were laid off in the early summer. Since the incumbents received advance notification and participated in warning various departments that the layoff would affect them, they must have known these e-mail addresses were no longer valid. The incumbents have provided their candidates with an electronic e-mail list, which enables them to broadcast campaign literature to the membership. I formally requested access to a membership list in electronic form that includes e-mail addresses and received no reply from them. My question is if providing unequal advantages to incumbents during an elections is in any way a violation of the bylaws. It seems unfair and undemocratic. Our elections will occur in early December. I would appreciate a response before then if possible.

Desiree Goodwin

Boston Globe announces Top 100 employers - Harvard doesn't place

2009-11-10T13:37:00.000-05:00

The Globe 100's top places to work
http://www.boston.com/jobs/topworkplaces/2009/globe100_top_places_to_work/
The Globe invited more than 1,000 companies to participate in the second annual Top Places to Work. Of those, 269 organizations went all the way through the process, allowing us to conduct a confidential survey of their workers. Research partner WorkplaceDynamics of Exton, Pa., specialists in employee engagement and retention, contacted more than 160,000 employees at those companies, and received surveys from 86,000 individuals. Each was asked to grade their organization's performance according to 24 distinct statements, ranging from "This organization demonstrates it values employees during difficult times" to "It's easy to tell my boss the truth."

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Reports Unexpected Surplus

2009-10-26T20:07:00.001-04:00

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Reports Unexpected Surplus
Published On 10/26/2009 2:30:51 AM
By BONNIE J. KAVOUSSI and ESTHER I. YI
Crimson Staff Writers

In a move that brought clarity to why administrators have tamed fiscal messages after months of stressing the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ impending financial deficit, FAS Dean Michael D. Smith delivered the news Friday that the school had posted a $58.6 million surplus in its unrestricted funds for the fiscal year that closed in June 2009.

The figure, released on Friday in Smith’s Dean’s Annual Report, was balanced by a consistent emphasis that most of the gains were “the result of one-time events,” and that, as expected, much remains to be done to close a remaining $110 million deficit.

Still, Smith noted that FAS received about $33 million in unrestricted gifts from two anonymous donors this past year, while also making a strategic withdrawal of $20 million in cash from its endowment to help offset the increased costs of the middle-income financial aid initiative.

Both funding sources represent isolated influxes into the annual budget, and will not be reported in subsequent years, meaning that the long-term deficit situation that Smith emphasized in a series of faculty meetings and community gatherings remains a concern.

But Smith wrote in his report that the “positive results from [Fiscal Year] ’09 allow us more time to implement...strategies so that we can bring our finances back into balance.”

In the meantime, it appeared Friday that Smith’s calls for cost-cutting measures last spring—when deficit estimates ran as high as $220 million over a two-year period—had paid some dividends.

In addition to the one-time injections of cash in the last fiscal year, FAS achieved a small unrestricted surplus from various savings measures—allowing FAS to grow its reserves by $58.6 million.

These savings included reductions in the amount of unrestricted sums—known as subventions—that are distributed to major FAS units, as well as lower costs associated with faculty recruitment and relocation, which appeared to follow from a Smith letter last December that announced a sudden, severe slowdown in searches for new faculty.

The additional savings also included reductions in utility rates and consumption in buildings that were aided by reduced hiring, which led to lower occupancy rates in the Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering and the Northwest Science Building.

FAS also pocketed about $12 million in additional revenues from various funding sources such as Extension School tuition—more than budgeted for the last fiscal year. At an open forum in September, Smith first informed faculty and staff that progress had been made on the University’s financial situation which had led him to prescribe cost-cutting measures that went “significantly further” than the “proverbial belt tightening,” as he wrote in a correspondence to the Faculty last year.

Speaking before an audience in the Science Center, Smith mentioned the anonymous gifts and told forum attendees that thanks to a combination of windfalls and budget trimming, the current fiscal year had seen its deficit already slashed by over $100 million from earlier projections.

In the report, Smith wrote that the administration should avoid spending all of the surplus accrued over the last fiscal year, and stressed the importance of aggressive fundraising, especially for unrestricted, current-use funds. He also reiterated what has become a continual note of caution—that FAS should be careful to only hire faculty and staff with the assurance of long-term funding.

FAS must whittle down its expenses after the endowment lost $11 billion—30 percent of its value—this past year. The Harvard Corporation slashed its endowment distribution to FAS by 8 percent for the fiscal year ending July 2010, and is planning to cut another 12 percent the year after, University President Drew G. Faust said at an October Faculty meeting.

“I am reminded daily of how enviable our intellectual resources are. These resources demand an intensified commitment to...a better understanding of our academic identity,” Smith wrote in the report. “Like a bridle for Pegasus, the result of such commitment will help us harness our financial and administrative resources to better serve our academic mission.”

The Dean’s Annual Report completes FAS’ official financial records from Feb. 2008—the endpoint of the last report—through June 2009. Instead of releasing the Annual Report nine months or more after the end of a fiscal year, Smith said he will now publish the report every October to detail the most recently closed fiscal year.

—Staff writer Bonnie J. Kavoussi can be reached at kavoussi@fas.harvard.edu
—Staff writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at estheryi@fas.harvard.edu.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=529739

University Pays $500 Million To Cut Losses

2009-10-20T09:50:00.002-04:00

University Pays $500 Million To Cut Losses

Published On 10/19/2009 12:03:13 AM

By PETER F. ZHU
Crimson Staff Writer

Harvard’s decision to use derivative investments to lock in low interest rates on the school’s mounting debt cost the University $500 million this past year and will cost it at least $425 million more over the next few decades, according to the University’s annual financial report released Friday.

Harvard entered into interest rate swap agreements—which are used to hedge against rising interest rates—in 2004, when it seemed that interest rates had reached favorable lows and that locking in those rates would help the University finance its mammoth, long-term expansion into Allston. But the agreements backfired this past year when the global financial crisis pushed interest rates to unprecedented lows, thereby decimating the value of the swaps.

Harvard, looking to safeguard its cash supply from the increasing threat of losses associated with the swaps, decided to post $500 million in collateral this past year to terminate agreements on $1.1 billion of its debt. In addition, the University will pay another $425 million over the next 30 to 40 years for new “offsetting” interest rate swaps, which will essentially negate the effect of the original swaps on $764 million of its debt.

“A precipitous drop in interest rates and liquidity considerations made it important for us to scale back the swaps substantially,” said University Treasurer James F. Rothenberg ’68 in a interview posted by Harvard. “That has come at a real cost, but at least we are now in a better risk position going forward.”

After the terminations, Harvard now has $3.1 billion of debt subject to interest rate swap agreements.

Many other universities have similar interest rate swap agreements in effect, but not to the magnitude of Harvard’s arrangements. Rothenberg said that this was because Allston presented Harvard with a “unique opportunity” to aggressively expand.

CASH CRUNCH

Friday’s report, which follows Harvard’s announcement last month that its endowment had shrunk by 30 percent this past year, also reveals billions of dollars in losses sustained through the University’s investments of cash designated for short-term expenses.

Harvard has traditionally pooled cash from the University’s various schools in a General Operating Account that is invested alongside the endowment—a practice that the report said “generated significant positive investment results” in the past. But this year, that strategy backfired, dragging the value of the GOA down from $6.6 billion last year to $3.7 billion this year. Part of that decline reflects the payments made to terminate interest rate swap agreements.

Harvard’s investment strategy, which has long emphasized broad diversification of assets, has also made the portfolio more illiquid, or difficult to convert back into cash. This has proved especially problematic amid the broadly slumping markets of the past year.

According to the report, the GOA is used to manage and execute all University financial transactions, including routine bill payments.

This weekend, the Boston Globe’s article on Harvard’s financial report suggested that the University’s decision to invest short-term cash alongside higher-risk endowment assets was unusual, and cited Stanford spokeswoman Lisa Lapin as saying that her school “wouldn’t take a cash account and invest it with the endowment.”

But in an interview with The Crimson, Lapin said that her comments may have been misinterpreted and emphasized that she was saying that her school’s operations are funded by investments held alongside the endowment. Stanford’s 2008 financial report, the most recent one available, states that the California university uses an “Expendable Funds Pool” partially to fund operations, of which a “substantial portion [is] cross-invested” in the Merged Pool, which consists of the endowment and other long-term funds.

Dan Shore, Harvard’s CFO, also told The Globe that the GOA losses did not prevent the school from meeting its existing obligations, and that the University’s cash position was secured by new debt issued by the school this year. Nevertheless, Shore said in an interview posted by Harvard that the school has adjusted its investment strategies to emphasize short-term flexibility and cash needs and will continue pursuing such “rebalancing efforts” in the future.

—Staff writer Peter F. Zhu can be reached at pzhu@fas.harvard.edu.

Harvard Buys Updike Archive - What budget cuts?

2009-10-08T12:16:00.005-04:00

Harvard buys Updike archive
Collection includes late writer’s reviews, letters, manuscripts

John Updike, as a senior at Harvard, in 1954.

By Tracy Jan Globe Staff / October 7, 2009

Harvard University has acquired the manuscripts, correspondences, and other papers of John Updike, a celebrated member of the Class of 1954 who kept a Harvard library card and frequently visited the campus to research the contemporary culture that enlivened his acclaimed fiction.

The university will announce today that Houghton Library, Harvard’s primary repository for rare books and manuscripts, will house the John Updike Archive, making the library the center for studies on the life and work of the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and prolific novelist, poet, and critic. College officials would not disclose how much Harvard paid to acquire the papers of Updike, who died in January at 76.

“John Updike is a terribly important American, given his cultural and literary achievement,’’ said William Pritchard, an English professor at Amherst College who chronicled the writer’s life and work in “Updike: America’s Man of Letters.’’ “It’s an extraordinary thing that his university is where his papers have landed.’’

Lined up, the entire archive stretches 380 linear feet. It spans 1,500 books, including Updike’s collection of his own work, published in foreign languages and English, as well as books Updike reviewed - with his pencil marks underlining the text, making notes in the margins, or bracketing a particularly well-turned phrase.

The papers also include photographs, files of brochures and fliers used in his research, sample dust-jacket designs, and letters from such literary figures as Kurt Vonnegut and Joyce Carol Oates, as well as from fans.

The archive is so extensive because Updike was not only prolific, he also was a perfectionist, said Leslie Morris, curator of modern books and manuscripts at Houghton Library, which also houses the papers of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, T.S. Eliot, and Edward Hoagland, a classmate of Updike’s.

Updike, a longtime resident of Beverly Farms, was disciplined and usually wrote for three hours every day. He produced multiple drafts of his poetry and prose, revising the computer printouts with pens and pencils, objects that Morris said the library has also acquired.

A close examination of the manuscripts and correspondence reveals the cultural transformations reflected in Updike’s works. In the first edition of “Rabbit, Run,’’ the 1960 novel that launched Updike into literary stardom, editors and publishers pushed him to remove many of the sex scenes, considered too explicit for the time, Morris said. The full text was not published until 1964.

Once the papers are catalogued, any researcher can gain access to the trove after registering with the library.

Updike, who entered Harvard on a scholarship, previously had donated a small portion of his papers to the university, including early short-story manuscripts written for the New Yorker; “Telephone Poles,’’ his early poetry collection; and nearly complete documentation on the creation of “Rabbit, Run.’’

For decades, the author deposited more of his papers, even golf score cards, at Houghton Library. But the later papers were not integrated with the rest of the collection, and Updike’s permission was required for any of the materials to be made available.

“There has always been this very personal connection between the Harvard libraries and John Updike,’’ Morris said.

In Harvard’s alumni magazine, Updike described the fourth floor of the Widener Library as one of his favorite spots on campus, a place where students must walk around a set of metal shelves in order to exit down the stairs.

“More than once, as an undergraduate, I missed this pivotal, unmarked turn, and found myself faced with a blank wall, or with an indignant PhD candidate dozing in his nook,’’ Updike wrote. “How like Harvard, I thought at the time, to set us these incidental tests.’’

It was in those Widener stacks where Updike continued to spend time as an adult, meticulously culling research that would be incorporated into his stories.

For “Terrorist,’’ his 2006 novel about the post-9/11 world - “a milieu he was not necessarily familiar with,’’ Morris said - Updike worked in Widener to get the Islamic context correct. For the character of Harry “Rabbit’’ Angstrom, the car-dealer protagonist in his tetralogy, Updike combed through books and articles about automobiles and dealerships.

His archive includes a research file for “Rabbit at Rest,’’ for which he won the 1991 Pulitzer, that contains a brochure for a 1989 Toyota Cressida and an account of a visit to a Toyota dealership in New Jersey that detailed the agency’s operations.

Despite his close Harvard ties, Updike wrote only one story about the college, Pritchard said. In “The Christian Roommates,’’ Updike writes about a student from a small South Dakota town who clashes with his freshman roommate.

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.

Public Meeting 10/7

2009-10-01T15:16:00.000-04:00

How Can We Fight Layoffs in this Recession?
A Discussion with Socialist Alternative and members of the No-Layoffs Campaign at Harvard

Co-sponsored by the Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) at Harvard

Free and Open to the public

Wednesday, October 7
7:00pm
Philips Brooks House, Parlor Room
Harvard Yard

Millions have been laid off since this recession began over a year ago, including many of our co-workers and friends here at Harvard. Even with the media talking about signs of recovery in the U.S. economy, layoffs continue around the country and internationally, including here at Harvard. Working people who have escaped layoffs are under more and more pressure to produce in under-staffed workplaces while wondering if they'll be the next to lose their jobs.

How can workers and youth fight against layoffs that impoverish whole communities? Layoffs need to be fought locally but also on a regional, national and international basis. Outsourcing, both domestic and foreign, continues to devastate as global corporations race to find the lowest wages.

The discussion continues on strategies and tactics to fight layoffs and reinstate workers at Harvard as well as how to link fights against layoffs in individual workplaces to a more generalized fight for jobs, extended unemployment benefits, stopping layoffs, etc.

Attend this meeting and help further the discussion of strategy and tactics in fighting layoffs and also learn more about on-going actions, including at Harvard, the Oct. 1st rally in Boston and beyond.

For More Information:

boston@SocialistAlternative.org 774-454-9060

UC Establishes Budget Cuts Task Force

2009-09-28T12:39:00.000-04:00

UC Establishes Budget Cuts Task Force

Published On Sunday, September 27, 2009 11:47 PM

By MELODY Y. HU
Crimson Staff Writer

In its inaugural meeting of the school year, the Undergraduate Council voted yesterday to establish a Budget Cuts Task Force, which the Council hopes will serve as a “centralized mechanism” for communication between students and the administration regarding budget cuts.

The ad hoc task force is charged with “coordinating all of the UC’s work as it relates to the budget cuts,” including advocacy for revisions to proposed cuts, recommendations for future cuts, solicitation of student feedback, and expression of student ideas and concerns, according to the legislation.

The task force is expected to work closely with the student life and College academics ad hoc working groups, which were commissioned in May by Dean of the Faculty Michael D. Smith to make recommendations on budget cuts to the administration.

“It’s really important that we have centralized mechanisms for us to communicate with the working groups,” Andrea R. Flores ’10, UC president and one of the co-sponsors of the legislation, said during the meeting.

“[Budget cut discussions] are going on in all dining rooms, all dorm rooms, in all UC committees,” said Mather representative and legislation co-sponsor Eric N. Hysen ’11. “The task force’s role is making sure all of those conversations are going towards a productive end.”

The ad hoc task force will be comprised of at least 5 UC members, who will be selected in an application process at the discretion of the UC Executive Board, though meetings will be open to all students.

Flores and Vice President Kia J. McLeod ’10 emphasized that student commitment and proper representation of all the UC committees would be important factors in selecting the members.

Although specifics of the task force’s operations have yet to be decided, Hysen said it is likely to be one of the most active divisions of the UC this semester.

“Our goal is to have [the task force] up and running very quickly,” he said.

The Council also passed legislation supporting the administration’s decision to consider reforms to the Administrative Board.

Based on the recommendations of a faculty review committee of the Ad Board, commissioned last year at the suggestion of the UC, Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds announced several major Ad Board reforms at a Faculty meeting in May.

One reform reduced the size of the audience that students face in Ad Board hearings from 35 administration and faculty members to a smaller sub-committee. Students will also have greater flexibility if they wish to select an advisor other than their resident dean.

Another reform that will be considered by the Faculty this semester will broaden the range of possible sanctions for first-time academic dishonesty.

“The Ad Board hasn’t been changed in over a century,” said Hysen, who co-sponsored the legislation. “This is one of the more significant things the administration has done.”

“We should commend the administration when it does really good things for student life,” Flores said.

—Staff writer Melody Y. Hu can be reached at melodyhu@fas.harvard.edu.

Images from 9/16 No Layoffs Rally -- two hours long!!

2009-09-21T14:00:00.007-04:00

Protesters Highlight Health Concerns

2009-09-17T10:54:00.000-04:00

Protesters Highlight Health Concerns

CRIMSON/ REBECCA J. MARGOLIES

Students and union activists protest layoffs and hours reductions for janitors in front of the Holyoke Center yesterday. They say that sanitation standards will slip, and health and safety will suffer as a result.
See more pictures for this story.

Published On Thursday, September 17, 2009 12:38 AM

By PETER F. ZHU
Crimson Staff Writer

Union activists and students at yesterday’s labor rally added to their tried-and-true repertoire of bullhorn blasting and sign waving to walk to Mass. Hall to deliver a modest gift to University President Drew G. Faust: a bag labeled “Get Well Harvard,” filled with cards from protesters.

But the gesture was not a sarcastic reference to the University’s recently-announced 30 percent drop in endowment value.

Instead, the cards left space for people to write “recommendations for a healthy Harvard,” and were intended to highlight a message—that the health of Harvard’s workers is deteriorating, and that the well-being of students and staff will suffer soon as well. Protesters argued that recent layoffs and hour reductions have left janitors with more to do in less time, and that sanitation standards will inevitably suffer—hurting the rest of the Harvard community.

“The first line of defense [against disease] is sanitation, and that’s the function of janitors,” said Daniel B. Becker, a union organizer who represents Harvard’s service workers.

A Harvard police officer accepted the gift bag and brought it into Mass. Hall, but it is unclear if Faust received the offering. Harvard spokesman Kevin Galvin declined to comment on the matter, saying only that he was “confident cleaning standards are being maintained” and that no Harvard-employed janitors have been laid off this summer.

But the University did slash work hours for over 100 of its own janitors in July, and numerous janitors it employs through outside firms—a group not addressed by Galvin’s statement—have been laid off in recent months as a result of reduced custodial budgets.

Abigail S. Brown ’11, a member of the Student Labor Action Movement, said that officials need to understand that there are “all sorts of people that make up Harvard and need to be recognized as valuable.” While yesterday’s actions were not intended to be conciliatory, Brown said SLAM would be employing various new strategies this year, hopefully embodying more “positive spin” than in the past.

“SLAM is not an anti-Harvard organization,” Brown reiterated.

But other attendees of the rally were more militant. Chanting repeatedly “No justice, no peace,” and “Harvard, escucha, estamos en la lucha” (Harvard, listen, we are in a fight), roughly 50 protesters picketed outside the Holyoke Center, denouncing what they called Harvard’s greed and calling for shared sacrifice by administrators. Geoff P. Carens, a Harvard librarian and union member who frequently organizes such vocal protests, ridiculed the University for saying that it was in the midst of a fiscal crisis and had to lay off workers when the endowment still stands at $26 billion.

“These people don’t know what a tough decision really is. They’ll never know what it’s like to struggle for something worthwhile,” shouted Bryan Koulouris, a member of advocacy group Socialist Alternative, to the gathered protestors. “That’s what this struggle’s about: It’s about solidarity.”

—Staff writer Peter F. Zhu can be reached at pzhu@fas.harvard.edu.

RALLY 9/16 4-6 p.m., 1350 Mass. Ave. Cambridge

2009-09-14T20:35:00.001-04:00

Somewhere between 97 and 130 unionized clerical workers have been laid off in recent months at Harvard, not even counting term employees whose contracts weren't renewed. 35 Harvard custodians have lost their jobs. Hundreds of other administrative staffers and less-than-halftime employees have been let go. About 150 custodians suffered a 12.5% reduction in their already-low salaries, with no decrease in the amount of work they're expected to do! Hundreds of other workers have taken early-retirement buyouts, and their co-workers are frantically trying to pick up the slack, leading to speed-ups and overwork. Conditions for workers in dining halls are worse than ever.

HARVARD STILL HAS A $26 BILLION ENDOWMENT! The University has increased tuition, and just negotiated a lucrative merchandising deal. Harvard is snapping up millions of shares of investment funds. Let's demonstrate to put healthy pressure on Harvard not to lay off more workers, re-hire the laid-off employees, and stop the pay cuts! Please join union members, unorganized workers, students, faculty & neighborhood activists as we

RALLY!
Wednesday, September 16
Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave, Cambridge (next to Au Bon Pain, steps from Harvard T, flyer is attached)

Workers in SEIU local 615 will demonstrate at 4 p.m, clerical workers will appear at 5 p.m., both at 1350 Mass. Ave. We'll rally at least until 6 p.m.!

Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139256136134

Harvard Endowment, Largest in Higher Education, Plummets by 27%

2009-09-10T11:31:00.000-04:00

Harvard Endowment, Largest in Higher Education, Plummets by 27%

Largest ever single-year decline brings endowment's value to $26 billion

Published On 9/10/2009 4:00:12 PM

By PETER F. ZHU

Crimson Staff Writer

Harvard’s invested endowment assets took a 27.3 percent hit this past fiscal year, amidst an economic maelstrom that Harvard Management Company CEO and President Jane L. Mendillo called “very likely the most challenging period in modern times for the financial markets as well as for the Harvard portfolio.”

The decline brought the total value of the endowment as of June 30 down to $26 billion—on par with 2005 levels—after reaching almost $37 billion in 2008. The negative investment returns, combined with donations received and money paid out for operations, pushed the endowment’s total value down by $11 billion, or almost 30 percent.

Despite the losses—which were more than the total endowments of any other schools except Yale, Princeton, and Stanford—Harvard’s endowment remains the largest in higher education.

“[W]e saw extreme uncertainty in our economy and a level of volatility and dysfunction in many types of investments that went well beyond all previous experience,” wrote Mendillo, who took the helm at HMC only last summer. The decline—the largest ever experienced at HMC, which manages Harvard’s endowment—was not unexpected, and administrators have been planning for a 30 percent decline since December. Many peer institutions have been anticipating similar losses.

The unprecedented drop has dramatic ramifications for Harvard’s schools, some of which rely on annual payments from the endowment for more than half their income. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest school and home of Harvard College, drew 52 percent of its revenues from the endowment last year. Planning for a precipitous drop in endowment size has already resulted in $77 million in budget cuts at FAS, and administrators are looking to cut another $143 million this year from a budget of just over $1 billion.

Mendillo emphasized in the endowment report released Thursday that the portfolio is “well positioned” to seize on new investment opportunities and to support University operations. But the report also supplies telling details about the brutal losses sustained by HMC since last July—losses that in many cases exceeded those of standard benchmarks. Possible investment policy missteps that exacerbated the effects of the global financial crisis on HMC, such as the maintenance of an insufficient cash reserve, are mentioned prominently as well.

Absolute return investments, which include some externally managed funds and made up 18 percent of the portfolio at the start of the last fiscal year, fell by 18.6 percent, or 5.4 percent more than the benchmark set by HMC’s board. The value of externally managed private equity holdings, representing 13 percent of the portfolio, dropped by a staggering 31.6 percent—nearly 8 percent more than the benchmark.

“With a few notable exceptions, nearly every asset class did poorly,” Mendillo wrote. “While diversification has been a mainstay and a driver of the portfolio’s return over the long-term, the benefits of diversification did not bear out [in 2009].”

The S&P 500 index fell roughly 28 percent during the period addressed by Mendillo’s letter, while peer investment groups as measured by the Trust Universe Comparison Service saw a softer median loss of 18.2 percent.

As a whole, the endowment performed 2.1 percent worse than the Policy Portfolio—a theoretical portfolio set by HMC specifying allocations and setting performance goals among a mix of asset classes. But certain individual assets have performed well. The report noted that the value of Harvard’s real asset holdings fell by 37.7 percent—slightly less than the benchmark—and that internal emerging markets and international fixed income teams outperformed their benchmarks as well.

As a result of this year’s broad underperformance, “a substantial number” of portfolio managers have had portions of their bonuses earned in past years “clawed back” by HMC, the report said, although it did not provide more specific figures. HMC, which has been criticized for its multi-million dollar compensation packages in the past, typically rewards managers for adding value and outperforming benchmarks. But it also withholds large portions of the bonuses over subsequent years in order to emphasize long-term growth and protect against excessive risk-taking. The report said that a small group of managers who outperformed markets would be receiving bonuses this year.

Mendillo partly attributed the endowment’s underperformance to “complications” within the portfolio existing before the financial crisis, including “recent over-sized commitments to illiquid asset classes; within asset classes, a larger proportion of strategies with long holding periods; [and] a lack of ready liquidity in the portfolio to meet our obligations along with the needs of the University.”

For years, Harvard has been the subject of scrutiny—and idolatry—as its endowment consistently generated double-digit yearly investment returns, largely due to its heavy exposure to alternative asset classes, which include real estate, private equity, timber, and other commodities. Such investments added long-term value to the endowment and brought sustained growth in previous years, but also reduced the portfolio’s liquidity—meaning that the University’s assets became more difficult to sell and convert to cash on short notice.

When markets plummeted across the board last fall, Harvard, along with many other investors and peer institutions, sought to reduce exposure to those illiquid, alternative assets and instead boost cash reserves for operations. Private equity holdings are especially taxing since they often require ongoing and continued capital commitments from investors.

“With perfect hindsight we and most other investors would have started this year in a more liquid position and with less exposure to some of the alternative asset categories that were hardest hit during FY 2009,” Mendillo wrote in the report.

In November, media outlets began reporting that Harvard was looking to sell billions of dollars in private equity holdings at drastically reduced prices, and in December, the University sold $2.5 billion in bonds in order to raise cash, refinance short-term debt, and terminate certain investment agreements. (Mendillo has stated in the past that HMC began exploring private equity sales even before the financial world imploded, as part of a larger policy portfolio shift that she implemented upon her arrival.) Thursday’s endowment report said that over the past year, HMC has reduced its payments owed to outside investment firms by roughly $3 billion and raised cash in order to explore “attractive investment themes that we foresee emerging from the crisis.”

Today, HMC’s Policy Portfolio aims to include a positive cash reserve of 2 percent, whereas the University had previously been borrowing a small percentage of additional money to invest—a practice that can augment gains but also magnify losses.

Mendillo said that the Company is now also considering remodeling its portfolio to encourage team collaboration, focus more on internal strengths, and reassess the endowment’s risk and the University’s needs. While overall risk management was “adequate” last year and helped avoid extreme volatility, Mendillo wrote that more is being done now to manage risk and that lessons have been learned, particularly that “the risk tolerance of the University needs to be an integral factor” when determining how the endowment is invested.

Nevertheless, HMC will likely hew to the diversified investment model that it has long championed. Mendillo pointed out that even slumping assets such as private equity have delivered high returns when annualized over the past few years. If HMC had simply invested its portfolio in a 60/40 ratio of stocks and bonds 10 years ago, the endowment today would be $18 billion smaller, she wrote.

Mendillo also emphasized that HMC has taken steps this past year to increase flexibility and control over internal and external funds. The report said that she intends to continue using a “hybrid model” of internal and external managers, but that she is not targeting any specific proportion. Instead, she noted that internal management is highly cost effective and that HMC would look to “increase the share of our internally managed assets under the right conditions.”

HMC cut its workforce by roughly 50 employees in February, citing the need to “re-balance and re-engineer” the organization. Since then, the Company has made a string of managerial hires, adding investment experts to several internal teams while appointing new heads of internal and external management from within. Mendillo said HMC has increased its “depth and breadth of talent” over the past year and will continue searching for further individuals with “unique investment insights.”

These recent hires, along with the policy adjustments made over the past year increasing HMC’s liquidity, have laid the foundation for a “solid, innovative and sustainable investment strategy” that gives “ample cause for optimism” over the next few years, Mendillo wrote. But she also called for “realistic” performance expectations over the next several years.

“For Harvard, as for almost every major investor, regaining the market value lost as a result of the recent global economic crisis will take time,” Mendillo wrote.

—Staff writer Peter F. Zhu can be reached at pzhu@fas.harvard.edu.

Losing a Living Wage

2009-09-09T11:05:00.000-04:00

Losing a Living Wage

Published On Tuesday, September 08, 2009 10:39 PM

By MEGAN A. SHUTZER

I remember the exact moment when I opened my inbox at an Internet café in Nairobi to see a forwarded e-mail from Marilyn Hausammann, Vice President for Human Resources at Harvard. Painstakingly slow, the page loaded with Hausammann’s announcement of the impending elimination of 275 staff positions. I had been in Kenya for only two weeks, and everything about the thickness of the air, the dirt under my fingernails, and stickiness of the keyboard reminded me of how many thousands of miles I was away from Harvard. I felt disempowered and unable to voice my opinion about the decision.

Now that I have returned, these 275 jobs are a thing of the past. I cannot go back in time, but neither can I accept Harvard’s layoffs, or the most recent hours reductions, that bring workers below a living wage. Harvard must strive to bring these members of the community back to a living wage while finding additional ways of cutting costs that do not jeopardize the jobs and lives of the people who make up this institution.

According to union representatives within Harvard, the administration’s most recent budget-cut tactic has been to implement hour reductions among staff while still expecting essentially the same amount of work to be done in less time. Although hour reductions appear to be a compromise, and perhaps a better option than layoffs, reducing hours continues to ask the lowest-paid workers at Harvard to bear an inequitable share of the financial burden. Staffers are physically strained by the work, and financially strained by the reduction in pay. Although hours reductions are preferable to layoffs because workers retain health benefits along with their continued paychecks, cutting the hours of people who already struggle to make ends meet circumvents the successes of the 2001 Living Wage Campaign. Therefore, although it is possible to see hour reductions as a win for workers, we must not accept them as a permanent solution.

Now that students have returned to campus, it is essential that we not forget the challenges facing the lowest-paid members of our community. Students must remain vigilant of the fact that the university seems to deliberately deceive us on issues involving budget cuts. It is apparent that administrators were merely waiting for students to leave campus before beginning layoffs. Although I had been warned of this, I still felt deceived by leaders of my university, who, weeks before, had shooed away concerns about layoffs by insisting that nothing had been decided and that we need not continue to pester them about layoffs because they simply had not happened. I recognize that there are, and were, many unknowns in this challenging financial crisis, but the administration’s approach demonstrated a failure of moral leadership.

How do students remain vigilant when we are often excluded from the decision-making processes surrounding Harvard’s budget? The first and most obvious way is to maintain our human and personal connections with all people who live and work at Harvard. Whether it means talking with someone who works in your dining hall or stopping to catch up with the janitor you’ve seen in the Science Center, you may learn that someone you see every day has lost an eighth of her salary and can no longer afford to pay rent. These human interactions are a key ingredient to having a respectful community, but they also contribute to the public’s understanding of how administrative decision-making affects real people.

If we know the personal stories and struggles that have emerged from this financial crisis, we may find ourselves more understanding and more dedicated to keeping the people of this university community together. Harvard workers are not a homogenous monolith with the same story, perspective, or needs, but they are individuals whom we can and should know personally and whose struggles we can and should work to alleviate. Students are not the whole answer to the challenges facing Harvard workers, but given that most of us are now back on campus, and as students we do not face the worries of being fired, we ought to be use our position to lobby for the rest of our community. Get involved with social-justice groups, write to administrators, attend rallies, and, most importantly, communicate with the people around you.

Megan A. Shutzer ’10, a Crimson editorial writer, is a social studies concentrator in Dudley House. She is a member of Student Labor Action Movement.

Harvard Boosts Equity Holdings

2009-09-01T22:00:00.000-04:00

Harvard Boosts Equity Holdings

Published On 8/31/2009 11:01:26 PM

By PETER F. ZHU
Crimson Staff Writer

The value of Harvard’s publicly traded equity portfolio has nearly doubled in recent months as the University reinvests—particularly in emerging markets and in Asia—after dramatically slashing stock holdings last fall amidst the global financial crisis.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure report released in August, Harvard had 112 publicly traded equity holdings valued at over $1.4 billion as of June 30. The figures represent a significant increase from the 99 holdings worth $771 million reported three months earlier.

The SEC’s 13F report only discloses a small fraction of the University’s total investments—it does not list assets such as foreign stocks, private equity, bonds, and real assets—but suggests that in rebounding from recent market turmoil, Harvard Management Company has been boosting its investments in foreign markets by increasing shares in private companies and exchange-traded funds, which are traded like stocks and track major indices such as the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.

HMC is responsible for overseeing Harvard’s endowment, which was valued at nearly $37 billion before the market crash last fall. University officials have planned for a 30 percent drop in the endowment’s value for the year ending June 30. Definitive endowment returns for that period are expected to be released in the next few weeks.

In the three months leading to June 30, the University increased its holdings in the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund—the single largest holding disclosed—from 8.3 million to 9.7 million shares, and the value of those holdings have increased from $205 million to $313 million.

Harvard also more than doubled its holdings in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking South Korean and Indian indices—valued at over $200 million—and the total value of its holdings in ETFs tracking Chinese, Brazilian, South African, and Mexican indices increased from roughly $291 million to $472 million. The University reportedly bought nearly seven million shares in an ETF tracking Taiwanese indices—reversing its earlier decision to sell the two million shares it had in the fund as of last September.

Other investments of note include over $55 million in an ETF tracking Russian indices, and multi-million dollar repurchases of shares in mining giant BHP Billiton and oil and gas producer China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

While the value of Harvard’s equity investments has increased, it remains modest compared to where it stood last September, when the University had nearly $3 billion invested in 213 public equity holdings. Jane Mendillo, president and CEO of HMC, said in an interview with The Crimson in May that she had “accelerated building a cash reserve” last fall—part of a larger policy portfolio change—but that the Company was “aggressively analyzing investment opportunities” and reinvesting cash coming out of the financial crisis. University spokesman John D. Longbrake declined to comment for this article.

HMC announced in early August the appointment of two senior investment managers to the Company’s internal team—a move that seems to dovetail with the apparent emphasis on emerging markets and Asia. Emil Dabora, a senior managing director at New York firm Caxton Associates, was appointed an equity portfolio manager, while Michele Toscani, a veteran of investment groups in Japan, was added to the International Fixed Income team.

—Staff writer Peter F. Zhu can be reached at pzhu@fas.harvard.edu

University Presidents live in luxury while campus workers lose their jobs

2009-08-13T12:25:00.000-04:00

Images from 8/6 No Layoffs picket

2009-08-10T11:04:00.007-04:00

Next public action of the No Layoffs Campaign

2009-07-28T19:16:00.005-04:00

STOP HARVARD'S LAYOFFS!
Reinstate laid-off employees!

Harvard University recently announced 275 layoffs of clerical and administrative staff. Activists estimate that about 1,000 workers have actually lost their jobs at Harvard in the past few months, including contact, less-than-half-time, and term employees, who were not mentioned in Harvard's announcement. These deep cuts will inflict serious harm on workers, their families, the surrounding communities, and scholarship at Harvard. A coalition of union members, non-union workers, students, faculty and neighborhood activists is fighting to stop the layoffs and get workers who have lost their jobs rehired. Please join us:

RALLY!
Thursday, August 6, 12:30 p.m.
Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

We will demonstrate to show Harvard that this issue is not going away. The richest university in the world, whose "non-profit" status confers special tax advantages, owes the public more than mass job cuts at a time of economic recession. Harvard made some risky bets on private equity, hedge funds, etc., and has lost some value from its still-massive endowment, but retains enormous resources, and income from many other sources apart from the endowment. If any cuts need to happen, Harvard should "chop at the top," not take away the livelihoods of lower-paid staff, many of whom live check-to-check.

For more information please email: nolayoffscampaign@yahoo.com.

Main Article about Layoffs from Harvard Magazine

2009-07-28T11:57:00.000-04:00

"Resizing," before "Reshaping"

“Looming Layoffs,” July-August 2009
“Liquidity and Leverage,” July-August 2009

No weekday hot breakfasts in House dining halls. Continued constraint on faculty appointments (a total of just 15 to 19 junior-faculty searches in 2009-2010, down from as many as several dozen in recent years), and severe limits on visiting faculty, lecturers, and appointments from other Harvard schools: all pointing to more limited course selections. Reduction of junior-varsity baseball, basketball, and hockey to club status. Teaching-fellow and external teaching-assistant “allocations” under “close scrutiny,” to “ensure compliance with new and existing guidelines on section sizes”—presaging larger discussion sections. A previously announced decrease in doctoral-student admissions—adding to pressure on the future supply of teaching fellows. Thermostats lowered in winter and raised in summer. Lessened reliance on consultants, and tighter travel and entertainment budgets.

These are among the measures listed on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) cost-saving website, unveiled on May 11 (www.fas.harvard.edu/home/planning). The academic, administrative, and extracurricular changes are merely those expected to be readily apparent come fall. Neither the economies linked to each measure nor the implications for employees are disclosed, but the actions are meant to realize $77 million in annual savings.

Unfortunately, these steps, characterized by FAS dean Michael D. Smith as a “resizing” through “better use of resources and increased efficiencies,” close only one-third of his faculty’s budget gap. In a community meeting on April 14, he disclosed that Harvard’s largest academic unit (the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences)—and the one most hard-pressed, in absolute terms, by the sharp decline in the endowment—faces a $220-million shortfall by the 2010-2011 academic year. FAS received $550 million in endowment distributions to fund operations in fiscal year 2008 and $650 million this past year. It had expected $750 million in the year now beginning, and more thereafter—but instead will be reduced to about $600 million now, and still less in fiscal year 2011. (“A New Economic Reality,” May-June, page 48, reported both the Corporation’s decision to reduce distributions from the endowment for the fiscal year begun this July 1 and again for the following year, and the pressure on other revenue sources.)

The $220-million gap is nearly 20 percent of FAS expenditures in the year just ended. Complicating any economies in the roughly $1.1-billion budget for the new fiscal year, perhaps $375 million is for items that cannot or, for reasons of University policy, will not, be cut: financial aid, sponsored research, and debt service. In fact, each of those items is increasing in the new fiscal year. That still leaves FAS to reduce the cost of its core academic activities by nearly 20 percent.

Smith announced at the meeting that he would charter six working groups (their financial goals yet to be disclosed) to produce cost-cutting proposals from now through spring 2010: arts and humanities, science, social science, College life, College academics, and engineering and applied sciences. Their goal, he wrote bluntly in a May 11 letter, is “a reshaping of the FAS in support of our teaching and research mission through a careful consideration of our academic and programmatic priorities.”

What “reshaping” will entail—perhaps closing or consolidating research centers, or retirement incentives for faculty members—is the subject of anxious speculation, even as the first round of efficiency measures is implemented (see “Looming Layoffs,” page 56). At the May 19 faculty meeting, Francke professor of German art and culture Jeffrey F. Hamburger asked what was meant by “structural change,” as a prelude to the working groups’ assignment. “It’s difficult to make constructive suggestions without some kind of meaningful framework,” he said. He wondered whether there were plans to merge or eliminate departments, and if so, to cut faculty or staff.

President Drew Faust said she hoped that where multiple University units addressed an issue—such as healthcare policy—ways might be found for intellectual collaboration and administrative efficiency. Smith said that the faculty had to examine the intellectual areas it most wished to tackle in the future, and to focus on how to pursue them with the available resources.

Pellegrino University Professor Peter Galison, an historian of science, said he could identify only two “ten to the eighth” (i.e., hundred-million-dollar) opportunities for meaningful savings: debt service and buildings, which were already incurred and in place; and the size of the faculty, which has grown by more than 120 positions this decade. In the end, he said, FAS would “have to be a smaller faculty than we are now,” so it made sense to stop talking about that prospect “in code.”

By planning for a 12 percent reduction in FAS’s endowment distribution for fiscal year 2011 (the Corporation has indicated a cut of “at least” 8 percent), Smith has seemingly built in a budget margin. But financial aid may rise further; past decisions have yielded a still-growing faculty and costly new labs; and faculty and nonunion staff are already going without salary increases.

Although attention focuses on FAS, similar issues play out across Harvard: for example, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, proportionally the most endowment-dependent academic unit, has reduced by 20 percent its number of fellows in the coming year. The same story is unfolding at comparable institutions that grew increasingly reliant on copious funding from their endowments—until last fall.

On April 1, Moody’s Investors Service, the credit-rating agency, issued a report maintaining its Aaa and associated ratings on the University’s debt, while taking into account “the deleterious effects of the global financial crisis and recession” on its finances. Moody’s reviewed Harvard’s remedial actions, observing that in the next few years “the University will face constraints in its capital program while also dealing with a significant reduction in revenues available to support its operations from endowment.” That said, the credit analysts advanced a “stable” outlook, in the context of one large risk: “[T]he University is more exposed than other organizations (outside of higher education)…to rapid and large additional declines in investment markets, given the magnitude of its balance sheet and equity exposures and the high reliance on endowment income over the long term for operations.” (For more perspective, see “Liquidity and Leverage,” page 52.)

Some other universities with diversified, complex portfolios report on their results throughout the year. In documentation for a bond offering this spring, Cornell disclosed that its investments, down 27 percent as of December 31, had depreciated to a 31 percent loss two months later (an estimate that did not include updated, quarterly valuations of private-equity and real-estate investments). In the meantime, it has more than quadrupled relative holdings of cash from the beginning of the year. The University of Virginia Investment Management Company’s March 31 report also indicated a sizable increase in cash, in part to be ready to make mandated future investments in private asset pools.

Both reports suggest what will attract notice when Harvard Management Company reports fiscal year 2009 performance in late summer: how defensive the portfolio has become (insulating against current losses, but depressing potential returns), and what results large holdings of illiquid and hard-to-value assets have produced.

In the meantime, Princeton president Shirley M. Tilghman on April 6 notified her community that the financial markets had “unhappily” not improved from the beginning of the year, compelling a further round of budget cuts for fiscal years 2010 and 2011—following similar rounds of deeper cuts announced by Yale and Stanford. Tilghman forecast uncomfortable pressure on endowment spending extending beyond 2011, even as Princeton pursues its capital campaign, and concluded, “The steady growth in both faculty and staff that we have enjoyed over the last 10 years will end, and the university will have to contract in size.”

The same is likely for much of Harvard. At the May 19 meeting, Faust said the community faces “very hard choices” and acknowledged, “We have to give some things up.” She urged the faculty to “focus not on what we have lost but on what we still have”—superb libraries, laboratories, students, and professorial colleagues.

For Smith, the immediate problem remains: FAS’s large financial chasm could not be closed in one year, so his working groups face months of effort to find additional cuts. In the future, he said on April 14, “it is increasingly likely…that we will not have a need for as many faculty and staff” as today. How the College and graduate school are reshaped looms as a particularly daunting set of issues for Harvard.

Article from Harvard Magazine about layoffs

2009-07-27T11:55:00.001-04:00

Looming Layoffs

Main Article: “"Resizing," before "Reshaping",” July-August 2009

Harvard has begun downsizing its workforce. On May 11, Marilyn Hausammann, vice president for human resources, announced that 534 of 1,628 staff members eligible for an early-retirement incentive—33 percent—had accepted the offer. (The Faculty of Arts and Sciences alone offered early retirement to 521 staff members, of whom 30 percent accepted—a small fraction of its nearly 3,700-person staff.)

The retirements will lessen, but not eliminate, layoffs, given pressure to cut spending. As of October 2008, Harvard employed about 12,950 full-time-equivalent non-faculty staff members—coincidentally, nearly 500 more than were employed a year earlier, and almost as many as are retiring early. For the year ended June 30, 2008, compensation accounted for 48 percent of University expenses ($1.7 billion). Hausammann noted, “Although Harvard’s schools and departments are now analyzing the impact of the pending retirements on their budgets…for many schools further reductions in force will likely be necessary to meet budget targets….” FAS dean Michael D. Smith’s letter on the same date reiterated an earlier warning. Although the efficiencies outlined on the FAS website were “staffing neutral,” he wrote, “the financial challenge before us makes it increasingly likely that staff reductions will eventually be necessary.”

The Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM), which led the living-wage campaign for lower-paid University employees at the beginning of the decade, re-emerged around the slogan, “Greed is the new Crimson” (a play on Harvard’s environmental theme), and organized rallies against layoffs (see www.hcs.harvard.edu/slam). SLAM leaflets distributed before the May 19 faculty meeting suggested alternatives (graduated pay reductions of 5 percent to 15 percent and reduced pension contributions for employees earning more than $100,000 per year, reduced paid vacation time) and detailed cuts adopted by senior administrators at Brown, Stanford, and other universities.

Layoffs were widely expected to be announced beginning in late June, after the Commencement crowds dispersed. For updates, consult www.harvardmagazine.com.

No Layoffs Campaign

Feb 9 - Rally Against Layoffs!

Emergency No Layoffs Picket Called on One Day's Notice

Proposed Staff Cuts Anger Library Workers

Library System Seeks to Reduce Staff

Crimson Op-Ed: No Layoffs for Harvard Libraries

Harvard Libraries Announce Unspecified Number of Layoffs

Dining Hall Workers Rally During Contract Negotiations

Dining Hall Workers To Rally in The Square

SLAM Rallies in Support of Workers

Dining Hall Workers Hit Hard by New Calendar

Dining Hall Workers Rally With Students

Crimson - HUCTW Rallies Against Walker Ban

Rally to Support Wisconsin Workers - TODAY!

Clerical Workers support our sisters and brothers in UNITE HERE Local 26!

Flyer from 12/1/10 action supporting Joan Frankel, Phebe Eckfeldt and Marian Merullo

12/1/10 Rally Supporting HUCTW members Joan Frankel, Phebe Eckfeldt and Marian Merullo

No Layoffs 2010 HUCTW Election Slate

Harvard says cash holdings climb to $1b

Images from 9/20/10 picket for unfairly-fired HUCTW member Joan Frankel

Justice for Joan: Boston Sass Attack cheers the crowd!

Justice for Joan! Evan Greer supports our 9/20/10 picket

Crimson Reports on Action for Joan

Despite Endowment Gains, FAS continues with cuts

Harvard's Endowment reports 11% Increase in FY2010

Justice for Joan

Crimson: Union Negotiations Made "Challenging" By Fiscal Situation

Harvard Institutes a Gag Order?

Images from 5/26 PICKET supporting DENNIS PRATER & against LAYOFFS and TEMP ABUSE

Harvard discloses pay for endowment officials

4 LAYOFFS ANNOUNCED IN WIDENER LIBRARY; 5/26 PROTEST

Crimson - Workers Advocates March on Yard

Poster for 4/29 Walk With Workers

Weekly Dig article on 4/29 Walk with Workers

Video of 3/25 No Layoffs picket

Images from 3/25 No Layoffs Protest

“Layoffs Are Not the New Crimson” - HUCTW and Supporters Rally Against Mass Layoffs at Harvard

“Layoffs Are Not the New Crimson” - HUCTW and Supporters Rally Against Mass Layoffs at Harvard

Text of flyer for 3/25 No Layoffs protest

More layoffs announced! 3/25 protest planned

FAS "Slims" Budget

Harvard received over $600 million in gifts in 2009

PICKET supporting dennis prater and against job insecurity

PICKET against job insecurity at Harvard, Thurs 1/28 @ 5 p.m.

Huffington Post on Harvard's Secret Seven

Harvard receives $20.5m gift for new Asia studies center

Crimson Editorial About FAS Spending

HUCTW Election Results

FAS Sees Light at End of Fiscal Tunnel

Images from 12/2 action for laid-off workers to be rehired, and against furloughs!

Workers, Students Rally Against Layoffs

No More Layoffs - Rehire all laid off workers - Rally - Wednesday, Dec 2, 5pm

FAS to Decrease Size of Faculty (Harvard Crimson)

FAS To Decrease Size of Faculty

Hiring to continue but not at same rate; retirement packages to be offered

Harvard ignored warnings about investments

Harvard ignored warnings about investmentsAdvisers told Summers, others not to put so much cash in market; losses hit $1.8b

Emeka Onyeagoro

Phebe Eckfeldt

Steve Fake

Genevieve Butler

Desiree Goodwin

Joshua Koritz

Geoff Carens

Open Letter to AFSCME

Boston Globe announces Top 100 employers - Harvard doesn't place

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Reports Unexpected Surplus

University Pays $500 Million To Cut Losses

Harvard Buys Updike Archive - What budget cuts?

Public Meeting 10/7

UC Establishes Budget Cuts Task Force

Images from 9/16 No Layoffs Rally -- two hours long!!

Protesters Highlight Health Concerns

RALLY 9/16 4-6 p.m., 1350 Mass. Ave. Cambridge

Harvard Endowment, Largest in Higher Education, Plummets by 27%

Losing a Living Wage

Harvard Boosts Equity Holdings

University Presidents live in luxury while campus workers lose their jobs

Images from 8/6 No Layoffs picket

Next public action of the No Layoffs Campaign

Harvard ignored warnings about investments
Advisers told Summers, others not to put so much cash in market; losses hit $1.8b