At The Game last week, Yale may have scored one too many touchdowns. But this week, the country's number-one safety school is striking out.

Down in New Haven this week, striking graduate students were joined by members of other university unions to protest Yale's refusal to recognize the teaching assistants' union.

Similar strikes have occurred at other college campuses, including the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

No such strife at Harvard. Here, graduate students might think twice before striking a match. Meanwhile, labor and management are getting along quite well, thank you.

Harvard now finds itself poised at the start of its first contract renegotiation with the University's largest union, the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW). The efforts to gain University recognition of the union several years ago were nothing less than a battle. But this time, both sides seem to be bracing for a lovefest. They are ready not just to deal, but to deal fairly.

Ironic Crossroads

Ironically, on the same day of the Yale strike, Harvard's negotiations got off to a rosy start with "Crossroads," a series of speeches and discussions aimed at facilitating the upcoming process. Both HUCTW members and administrators participated in the day's events.

"The problems that the University faces are the problems that we all face," says Vice President for Administration Sally H. Zeckhauser. The key, says Zeckhauser, is that both sides have put aside past differences and are now set to work together.

Although the atmosphere at Harvard is now positive, Harvard has not always been free from labor strife.

In 1988, Harvard's clerical and support staff voted to form HUCTW. The University opposed the unionization of the workers, and fought the move in court.

After a bitter fight, the University lost. At that point, management and a newly formed union sat together at the bargaining table for the first time. And after just four months of surprisingly peaceful negotiations, HUCTW and Harvard agreed on their first contract.

That contract will expire this June, making it necessary that these negotiations move quickly. The University has scheduled formal talks to begin in late winter or early spring to provide ample time for thorough negotiations, says Donene M. Williams, HUCTW president.

Both sides agree that the key to success is that both the University and the union have learned from the past.

"There has been a tremendously positive change in the University," Williams says, pointing out that many officials who were once vemently anti-union now work closely with HUCTW.

"I credit the University with learning a lot...We've learned a lot," she says.