"I understand that graduate students at other universities feel that this is the only way in which they can get their grievances heard, but I would certainly prefer to keep relations with the Harvard administration on a friendlier level," Richmond says.

He emphasized that unionization is a last resort, and labor matters at Harvard do not require this tactic.

The last move towards unionization by Harvard graduate students occurred in the 1970s. The movement was deflected when Harvard agreed to improve the financial aid system, according to Woolf.

Since a relatively minor 1991 debate over income tax withholdings from teaching fellows' pay, graduate students have not vocally questioned labor conditions.

Instead, graduate students and the GSC have focused on improving the advising and the financial aid system.

Although Lopez acknowledges the difficulty of standardizing and improving the advising system, he stresses its importance.

"It's something that needs to be done," he says. "At the core [advising] is a relationship between two people. You can't legislate to make sure a relationship between two people is run in a certain way."

Let's Talk It Through

Working conditions for TFs aren't bad at Harvard, but most grad students wouldn't call them perfect.

"There is a bit of a cultural attitude at some institutions that graduate students are expendable, that they are largely cheap labor for teaching and research," says former GSC President Adam Fagen.

And as for the labor activity at other schools, Fagen says it is not that the situation has worsened in the past few years, but rather that awareness of bad working conditions for graduate student instructors has increased.

"I guess it's hard to say if this has necessarily gotten better or worse, but there does seem to be more awareness of the issue now than there was a few years ago," he says.

And although Harvard's graduate students have not organized formal unions, the GSC and other graduate organizations represent their constituents' interests in negotiations with University officials.

GSC officers meet yearly with President Neil L. Rudenstine, Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 and other administrators, and have more frequent meetings with GSAS Dean Christoph J. Wolff.

In addition, Lopez says administrators are fairly open to the discussion of graduate student concerns.