More than half of Harvard's teaching fellows have signed a petition calling for higher pay and redefinition of their work load.

Representatives of the two-month-old Federation of Teaching Fellows will present the petition today to Dean Ford and to John P. Elder, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The Federation drafted the petition in February.

With a few of the signatures still uncounted last night, the petition before the names of 493 teaching fellows. According to most recent official figures (June, 1966); there are approximately 915 teaching fellows under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

The Federation's three-man executive committee does not plan to discuss the TF's requests today. It will simply deliver the petition and set up an appointment for talks at a later date, John R. Maynard, teaching fellow in English and member of the committee, said last night.

"It's the first time we've gone to the University formally and asked them to recognize us in some fashion," Maynard said.

The petition calls on the Administration and Faculty to meet with representatives of the Federation "to adjust the compensation and hours of employment of teaching fellows."

It suggests that the University raise each teaching fellow's pay to $1600 per fifth, $400 more than the present top rate.

The fifth is a measure of teaching work load, defined by dividing a fellow's total work and study time into five equal parts. Under this system, most TF's teach two or three fifths, receiving at most $2400 or $3600 per year.

The petition's requests, if granted, would raise a teaching fellow's pay $800 per year, if he taught two fifths. Most teaching fellows also receive scholarships to cover the cost of their tuition.

The other request is that the fifth, which is measured differently in the different departments, "be equitably defined and administered throughout the University."

Broader Issue

The broader issue is the Federation's right to speak for the teaching half of the teaching fellows, who play the dual role of graduate student and Faculty member.

This is why, Maynard said, the teaching fellows are approaching the University through the Faculty rather than through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Implicit in the petition, Maynard said, is the Federation's desire that teaching fellows be dealt with as "the junior faculty of the junior faculty."

Although there is a Graduate Student Association to represent graduate students, he continued, until now there has been no corresponding organization to articulate the interests of the teaching fellow as a group.

When discussions with the Administration begin, Maynard said, the Federation plans to present arguments relating Harvard teaching fellows' pay to comparable positions at other colleges, to other teaching positions at Harvard, and to living costs in Cambridge.

A breakdown by departments indicates that the most signatures -- 78 -- came from teaching fellows in General Education. The next highest figures were 57 in Chemistry and 56 in English.

Other departments include 36 in Expository Writing, 34 in Social Relations, and 32 in History.

The Federation, which grew out of a series of meetings among teaching fellows this fall, set itself up as a formal organization Feb.16. At that meeting, the TF's drew up the petition, and have occupied themselves primarily since then in a campaign to accumulate signatures.