In recent months, some city councillors, led by new members Jim Braude and Marjorie C. Decker, have adopted a much more belligerent tone in calling for Harvard to implement a living wage on its campus.

The council enacted a living wage for all city employees in May 1999 and has passed a series of unanimous resolutions for Harvard to do the same.

In the past few months Braude and Decker have issued more forceful challenges, publicly stating they will not support Harvard's development projects unless the University enacts a living wage.

Last month, Decker also invited childhood friends Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Class of 1992, to speak at a living wage rally. The Academy Award-winning actors, both of whom grew up in Cambridge, attacked Harvard for failing to live up to its civic obligations.

"Within the Cambridge community, Harvard has long been viewed as some sort of amoral juggernaut, gobbling up real estate, intoxicated by its own power and thereby above the standards of simple human decency," Damon told the crowd of more than 400. "Their resistance to a living wage does nothing to counter this characterization."

At a rally held in April, both Braude and Decker explicitly linked Harvard's development plans with the campaign for a living wage.

"If Harvard wants to build a new building and comes to the City Council, all nine of us will say, 'Implement a living wage, and we'll talk,'" Braude said.

Other members of the council, including Galluccio, have shied away from Braude and Decker's more overt threats, but say they understand the aggressive stance of the new councillors.

"It's clear that members of the City Council are frustrated," says Councillor Kathleen L. Born. "Their threats are a symptom of that frustration."

"This is a new council and I think it's finding its way," she adds.

"This is an aggressive council," Galluccio says. "People expect things from the University."

Galluccio maintains that he is "not an anti-Harvard mayor," but he says he is not happy with the city's current relationship with the University.

"The real priority has been the endowment and fundraising and expansion, not social partnership," Galluccio says.

"I have to admit I've had concerns about attending graduation," he adds. "My message right now is that everything is not fine."

But University administrators universally condemn threats by city councillors to block Harvard development without the implementation of a living wage.