Maull emphasized the Task Force's appeal to members of the Harvard Community for consultation and communication."

While Corvey maintained that the process is not exclusionary, she said the process requires some form of structural hierarchy in order to work.

"It would be unfortunate if the mechanism of a group whose job it is to provide expertise was hindered by incorporating the masses of people who make up this large community," Corvey said.

"But our intent is to solicit every possible opinion from every conceivable constituency," she added.

The results, which are expected to be presented this May, are intended to "provide a set of solutions that are the most workable for everyone," Corvey said.

Maull compared the task force's activities to a "balancing act."

"We need to devise a structure that fits into a fair and competitive level of total compensation that is both affordable to the University and is balanced against employees needs and values," maul said.

But all that explanation leaves a question unanswered: How can a group of administrators accurately assess the needs and values o the wide range of employee constituencies whose fates they might control?

Certainly not by relying on data gathered from questionnaires and advisory groups said Williams, the union president. "Advisory groups are powerless by definition," she said.

And even of they wielded as much influence as administrators say they do, the administrators give different accounts of the activities of the groups.

Green said the groups meet regularly--some as often as three times a month. In contrast, Maull said the groups meet regularly--some as often as three times since the fall.

In addition, administrators were unable to provide lists of the members of the advisory groups this week.

Williams questions whether the advisory groups are meeting at all. "Whenever we try to find out who is meeting and when we can't she said.

"I'm not convinced that these groups are meetings at all consistently or that they're doing anything in any meaningful way," Williams said. "At least I've seen nothing to indicate that they're meeting at all or not meeting in complete secrecy,"

"No list of members and meeting times has ever been published, so how could these people be representative of campus constituents if We don't know who they are?" Williams asked.