And she said the task force felt the final product was "fair," impacting a "wide spectrum" of employees.

But she also said part-time employees, formerly covered the same as full-time employees, are going to be hit hardest by the changes.

"The fact that the University's contributions will be pro-rated is going to be difficult for them," Corvey said.

Bill Jaeger, director of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW), said yesterday that the union, which publicly criticized the system of benefits review, is most concerned about the effects of the changeson part-time employees.

Members of HUCTW, like those of Harvard's othereight employee unions, will not be directlyaffected by the changes, as their benefits are setby prior contract. But the changes are expected tobe a factor come renegotiation time.

"We've been spending a fair amount of timetrying to analyze and understand what's in thatpackage," Jaeger said. "We're seeing this as areally serious set of changes."

He said that, however, the union was not toosurprised that they had problems with the finalproduct considering their disagreements with thereview structure.

As set up by the University, the review processwas to be headed by a task force consisting ofadministrators, with faculty and staff representedby advisory committees. The union publiclyrequested a seat on the task force, saying theyfelt their appointed role was insufficient.

"Our sense of people who would make sacrificesfor this plan [are] part-time people andretirees," Jaeger said. "We have some doubts aboutwhether this set of changes asks for greatercontributions from the right people."

Jaeger said that, while there have not beenextensive discussions, the nine Harvard unionshave talked about the plan with each other andplan further analysis.

"We're not going to be sympathetic to theUniversity's argument that we should embrace thesechanges for the sake of consistency," he said,referring to HUCTW.

But Corvey said feedback received from aspecial hotline and three informational meetingshas been fairly positive.

The hotline has received about 20 calls per daysince it was set up late in June, and about 200people attended the three meetings that samemonth.

"There are, of course, people who areunhappy...[but] it's virtually impossible toplease everyone," Corvey said. "In the end, wewere comfortable [that] it was the right way togo.