"Realistically, it will be a factor in thenegotiations," he said. "It's bound to be one ofthe important issues on the table."

But he said he thinks the union and theUniversity can have a "thoughtful" talk about it.

"It's going to be a complicated conversation,but there's no reason why it shouldn't be areasonable conversation," Rudenstine said.

Rudenstine said he expects the preliminarytalks to begin in the middle of the year, but thatthe University has not had any serious discussionwith any of its employee unions about the issue.

Tim Manning, director of labor relations in theoffice of human resources, said that he has hadsome "educational" discussions with the unionsacross campus. He described reaction as "mixed."

"There's generally a strong sense that weneeded to do something...because of costprogression," he said.

But the discussions are not likely to remainmerely educational for too long--all of the sevencontracts Harvard has with its employee unionsexpire at some point in the next 14 months,Manning said.

"Hopefully we won't have to wait until thecontracts expire [to come to an agreement onbenefits]," said Manning, who will be theUniversity spokesperson for the contractnegotiations