Williams also said she was concerned that not only the advisory groups but the task force itself is holding clandestine meetings.
"It's not publicity announced when and where they meet, nor what they're doing," Williams said.
Williams even challenged administrators' assertions that HUCTW leaders were "invited" to form an advisory group.
She said the first contact between Green and HUCTW occurred in late October, months after the task force was formed.
And according to Williams, it was she who contacted Green, not the other way around.
"We were the ones who contacted the provost after he sent a letter to employees," Williams said. "We responded by contacting him because this letter alarmed a large number of our members."
Still top-level administrators are standing firmly together in refuting the charges of the HUCTW leadership.
"I know for a fact that consultation is going on with all the different employee constituencies," Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles said in an interview yesterday.
Knowles said he felt that communication between all parties was satisfactory. "I'm not even on the Task Force and I know what's going on," the dean said.
But in emphasizing the severity of the benefits funding conundrum, knowles echoed Jaeger's comments last week.
"If you get sick youir health benefit is not fringe--it's an important crucial benefit," knowles said. "And administrators understand that."
Corvey, Maull and knowles also refuted a University official's earlier claim that the financial situation on benefits has reached "crisis" proportions. They call it an "Issue," but one which University officials have been aware of for years.
Why then is it just becoming public knowledge now?
Maull described the situation as being part of the larger national problem of the rising costs of health care--a heavily publicized situation that has "become submerged in some people's minds."
And Corvey said that the University's predicament has been thoroughly examined in public forums like the University-controlled Harvard Gazette for months.
"If one had the time to carefully read all the documents that have been published about this growing problem, the dynamics of this issue would have been understood well over a year ago," Corvey said.
"While this is a serious financial threat," she added, "It's certainly not a sudden smack in the face.