N.Y.A AT HARVARD

Part II presents an analysis of how N.Y.A. would work at Harvard.

Since the mechanics of N.Y.A. administration are to be determined by the College and since the methods of application vary from institution, it is impossible to state exactly what the Work Program would consist of at Harvard. However, using the experiences of other colleges as a standard of judgement, it is possible to predict a composite picture of N.Y.A. in the Yard.

All jobs would be classed under two general headings, college work and graduate work. The former, since it is relatively unskilled, is rewarded with a lower minimum, maximum, and average wage than the latter, both per hour anl per month. A student in the College would earn something over $13 a month on the average at from $30 to $50 an hour.

The graduate student, with his higher theoretical marginal efficiency, would receive an average of $21 a month, although it is possible for him to make up to $30 in certain types of skilled, specialized jobs such as assisting in laboratories.

No student can receive less than $10 a month. Fewer graduates than undergraduates can be employed under the N.Y.A., however, because of a provision in the grant to the University stating that the average wage per student working in the University, shall be $15 a month or $135 a year. The University can receive up to $80,000 in a year from the Youth Administration, and about 600 students would get a chance to work under the plan.

Vocational Jobs Preferred

From its birth, the Youth Administration has attempted to provide jobs for young people which will help them when they leave the shelter of the program and get jobs on their own. However, in a college where vocational training is emphasized and where opportunities for jobs which teach business are few, this plan must often be discarded, and students have to accept jobs which will not help them after graduation.

As far as possible, though, jobs for Harvard students would lie along the vocation lines to be chosen by the student. For instance, graduate students would be practically certain to do white collar or research work. A graduate in the sciences might be paid for assisting professors in the laboratories. A Business School student would be given a job in an office.

It might only consist of secretarial work, but it would teach him the ground work of office life. Since the University is forbidden by the terms of the grant to replace a regular worker with an N.Y.A. student, a great deal of work which has been abandoned since the Depression because of the limitation of the budget might be started up again using student workers. Other possible uses for graduate students are increasing the efficiency of Widener and grading bluebooks. Art work and hospital work are recommended by the Youth Administration.

Commuters Benefit

For the undergraduate the plan becomes less simple. First there is the problem of the commuter. Barred from doing work which is rewarded by pay-in-kind such as waiting in Square restaurants in exchange for meals, and ineligible for T.S.E. the Commuter has long been a sore spot in the College work program. All sorts of construction, repair, and maintenance work around the University are open to him under N.Y.A.

If there are not enough jobs of these sorts, it might even be possible to use N.Y.A. funds to pay students for work for the Cambridge City Government as a last resort. Such jobs as ticket taking, grounds keeping, and watching parking lots are recommended.

The only types of work on which the N.Y.A. actually puts its foot down are janitorial jobs, as it is felt that college students should aim high. The use of N.Y.A. funds to pay students for guarding the football team during its secret practices would also be frowned on.

Resident Also Helped