Against the background of vocal graduate student unionization efforts at private Eastern universities, some of Harvard’s teaching fellows are quietly organizing in an attempt of their own.

Since New York University (NYU) became the only private university in the nation to have negotiated a contract with a teaching or research assistant union earlier this year, university administrators at schools like Tufts and Columbia have fought teaching fellow unionization by their own students.

At Columbia, hundreds of teaching assistants walked out of classes April 29 after the university appealed a decision favoring graduate student unionization by a regional office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

At Harvard, where unionization discussions are still in the beginning stages, University officials have declined to comment on whether they would join many of their Ivy League counterparts in protesting such efforts.

“I don’t want to-—as a rule—comment on future possibilities that might emerge,” says University President Lawrence H. Summers in an April interview. But he added, “graduate student teaching fellows are very much a part of the professional teaching faculty of the University rather than a separate group of employees.”

A Need for Unions?

A committee of graduate students that formed last year has begun asking students to sign cards indicating their wish to receive union representation, the first step required by the NLRB for unionization.

But the process can take years.

Unionization efforts at NYU, which began in 1998, only culminated in January in the signed contract with teaching and research assistants, which raises yearly salaries from $11,000 to $15,000 and commits the university to providing affordable health care.

Harvard pays it teaching fellows roughly $13,000 to $16,000 annually and offers a health care plan.

And over the last few years, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) has worked with the Graduate Student Council to increase stipends, health benefits and financial aid availability, wrote GSAS Dean Peter T. Ellison in an e-mail. Next year, GSAS will increase financial support opportunities to free first-year students from teaching, and will continue its push for the creation of more housing.

“I see every reason to be optimistic about our progress in these areas,” Ellison wrote.

But while graduate student council President Shaun L. Rein says Harvard’s salaries for teaching and research assistants are generous, some graduate students say high housing costs in Cambridge combined with a lack of Harvard dorm space make maintaining an adequate standard of living difficult.