Lawrence H. Summers won’t hand down his verdict on Harvard’s wage policies at the end of this week, as many expected he would.

Although the official comment period for response to the comprehensive report of the Harvard Committee on Employment and Contracting Policies (HCECP) ends today, Summers said whether those recommendations will be adopted is a decision that may take weeks.

Summers “needs to distill what he’s heard from a wide variety of people inside and outside of the University,” said University spokesperson Joe Wrinn.

The HCECP report, which recommends the University institute wage increases for service workers and equalize the pay of workers directly employed, was released in December. Summers may opt to implement all, some or none of its provisions.

The Living Wage Campaign is planning a rally on Monday in Harvard Square with city councillors and state officials.

AN OPEN LETTER

The Faculty Committee for a Living Wage in recent days has circulated a petition calling on Summers to adopt the report’s recommendations in full, and endorsing the Progressive Student Labor Movement’s (PSLM) demand for wages to be annually adjusted based on the cost of living in the Boston area.

As it was circulated via e-mail, the petition—which now has 120 signatures—used direct quotations from a Crimson staff editorial, without attribution. Eight of the petition’s 15 sentences copy the exact phrasing of a Jan. 7 Crimson editorial written in response to the HCECP report.

Entitled “Faculty Statement on the Living Wage,” the petition was sent to faculty who supported the living wage during last spring’s PSLM sit-in at Mass. Hall.

The petition was distributed with a cover letter written by six Faculty members; Michael Herzfeld, professor of anthropology; Richard Thomas, professor of Greek and Latin; Richard Moran, professor of philosophy; Bradley S. Epps, professor of Romance languages and literatures; Tom Jehn, preceptor in expository writing; and Timothy Patrick McCarthy ’90, lecturer in history and literature. They signed the letter “for the Faculty Committee for a Living Wage.”

When it was circulated, the cover letter and the petition made no mention of The Crimson.

Crimson President C. Matthew MacInnis ’02 said yesterday, “It’s well known that all our work is copyrighted. I’d have a hard time believing any claims to ignorance in that regard.”

Matthew R. Skomarovsky ’02, a member of PSLM and student liaison to the Faculty Committee for a Living Wage, said that the petition was drafted “a few days after” the Crimson editorial ran.

“A few faculty had read the editorial and were impressed by it,” Skomarovsky said. “We thought it was an important point that [the petition] was along the same lines and using the same language as the editorial.”

Crimson reporters attempted yesterday to contact all six Faculty members who signed the petition’s cover letter, but reached only McCarthy, the history and literature lecturer, and Jehn, the expository writing preceptor.