* The disclosure in March that HRE president Sally Zeckhauser's salary had been increased from $48,637 to $65,500; that Treasurer S. Michael Hawe's pay had been increased from $38,480 to $49,940; and that Vice President Robert Silverman's stipend had been hiked from $31,800 in fiscal year 1980 to $49,300 in fiscal year 1981. A spokesman for the University said that the HRE administrators' pay increases stemmed in some cases from expanded job responsibilities, in one case from special bonuses, and in another instance from past payment for current and future services. But HTU leader Turk said that while HRE officials have in the past blamed a lack of attention to apartment repairs on serious fiscal constraints, the salary hikes "reveal how hollow those claims are."

In the minds of tenant activists, however, perhaps HRE's most grievous offense is its staunch refusal to recognize the existence and legitimacy of the Harvard Tenants Union, now about a year-and-a-half old. "They seem to hope we go away," Turk said shortly after the union's first anniversary.

Last February, Turk mailed a letter to Zeckhauser asking her to "sit down with representatives of the union in an effort to reconcile differences." Zeckhauser ignored the return address listed on Turk's letter--the official address of the union--and sent her response to Turk's personal address. She did not directly refuse Turk's request for a meeting but stated that HRE responds only to "specific complaints and suggestions from specific tenants about their individual units and building common areas affecting them." She said in a subsequent interview that HRE would not alter its stance and recognize the union in the future.

HTU members say they interpret HRE's stance as a traditional attempt at union-busting. And they find little comfort in Zeckhauser's suggestion that it tenants become dissatisfied with HRE's treatment, they can be "adequately protected by local and state laws administered by a wide variety of government agencies," including the Cambridge Rent Control Board Turk and other tenants point out that because of HRE's financial resources and its ability to hire attorneys, there is no balance in court or rent board fights between Harvard and tenants.

While some observers interpret HRE's general attitude toward HTU its treatment of tenant activists as a sign that the union may have the long-term potential of swaying Harvard administrators to greater regard for tenant relations, others note that as long as the University refuses to recognize the union there will be isolated incidents such as the Erickson affair and protracted disputes such as the Ware St. episode. The beginning of direct negotiations between Harvard and the union could produce immediate positive results for both parties, the tenants contend.

To many observers on the Cambridge political scene, it seems that Harvard's tenants are only asking for the same cooperation that the University has recently accorded to neighborhood groups in the University Place negotiations and other cases. From the point of view of Harvard administrators, it may have been far easier to perceive the immediate benefits of working out a solution to the University Place dispute (without it the massive project could have been stalled for months) than to understand the advantages of accepting tenant's gripes on a daily basis. But now that they have a chance to look back, HRE officials may see that by talking about the HTU energy survey results, for example, they could have avoided what was for Harvard and tenants an unpleasant confrontation over the Ware St. windows.

HTU leaders say that to resolve what now appears as one of the remaining black marks on Harvard's record of relations with Cambridge residents, HRE must simply put into effect the words of Kenneth W. Erickson '69: "I attempt to speak to tenants and listen to their concerns."

HRE responds only to "specific complaints and suggestions from specific tenants."   Sally Zeckhauser, HRE President

"They seem to hope we go away."   Michael Turk, coordinator of the Harvard Tenants' Union