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Federation Headlines
September 2001 - July 2002

June 02 | May 02 | April 02 | March 02 | February 02 | January 02
December 01 | November 02 | October 01 | September 01
August 01 or earlier


Labor Talks at Yale may Linger till Fall
(New Haven Register, 7/29/02)
The patience and optimism of last spring is giving way to frustration and strike talk as Yale University's officials and labor unions continue to negotiate for new contracts with no settlement in sight.

Thousands flock to Connecticut seeking better life
(New Haven Register, 7/28/02)
Not too many people care about Javier's problems. He's an illegal immigrant earning about $100 a day at a Waterbury construction site. He's got no benefits or insurance, lives in a crowded hotel room with other illegal immigrants and sends nearly all his earnings to his family in Mexico.

Clergy group aims for 'justice'
(New Haven Register, 7/23/02)
Sensing their congregations are finding it increasingly tough to survive in Connecticut's economy, a group of New Haven clergy Monday announced formation of a new group to fight for "social and economic justice."

Professor of Desperation
(The Washington Post, 7/21/02)
Tracy's itinerary today has the precision of a train schedule: English 101 at Mary Washington from 8 a.m. till 8:50 a.m. Office hours from 9 till 10 a.m. Another English class from 10 until 10:50 a.m. Back in the car by 11 a.m. Up I-95 to George Mason University. Another class from 12:30 p.m. till 1:20 p.m. Talk to students for a few minutes. Back in the car by 1:45 p.m. and race to Georgetown University. Grade papers and prepare for class while eating lunch. Class on Shakespeare and film from 3:15 p.m. to 4:05 p.m. Back in the car before the meter expires and head home. Then she grades more papers until midnight. Six hours later it all begins again. It's not what she hoped her life would be like, but it's what she's gotten used to since finishing her PhD.

Cornell Agrees to Graduate Student Union Election
(Yale Daily News, 7/20/02)

For the first time, a private university has amicably agreed to a TA unionization election, and said it would not appeal the results.

Union Vote Ahead for Cornell Assistants
(New York Times, 7/17/02)

Cornell University agreed last week to let graduate student assistants vote on whether they wanted union representation; it also agreed to negotiate with a union if the students approved it.

Unions may vote to allow strike
Summer negotiation difficulties set stage for possible fall conflict

(Yale Daily News, 7/12/02)
Frustrated by the slow progress of recent contract negotiations, Yale union leaders said they may hold a strike authorization vote at a membership meeting Sept. 4.

Schmoked Out
(New Haven Advocate, 7/11/02)
He asked for advice. He's getting it. Kurt Schmoke, former Baltimore mayor, outgoing Yale Corporation senior trustee, spoke out against the grassroots candidacy for a seat on the Yale Corporation by New Haven's Rev. W. David Lee.

When Are Teachers Auto Workers? When They're N.Y.U. Adjuncts
(New York Times, 6/10/02)
The United Auto Workers defeated the American Federation of Teachers in an election to represent part-time adjunct professors at New York University, according to a vote tabulated yesterday by the National Labor Relations Board.

Smell the Chalk Dust
(New Haven Advocate, 7/4/02)
This past school year, my 10th-grade history class had no teacher for most of the first semester. The teacher who showed up the first day was new to my school, and apparently also new to teaching anyone over the age of 11. He called in "sick" for weeks; we finally realized he wasn't coming back. We had some substitute teachers. Most days we spent the 45 minutes doing what we pleased. This ranged from UNO-gambling to lessons in drug dealing to Disney sing-alongs.

Rowland takes a stand
(New Haven Advocate, 7/4/02)
Connecticut's governor sure knows how to zing those one-liners. But people in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport federal court didn't get to hear any stand-up routines when he testified there last week. Rowland was answering questions about his decision to authorize taxpayer money for scab workers during a nursing home strike last year.

Activists converge on City Hall
(New Haven Register, 7/2/02)
Moments before the Board of Aldermen convened Monday, three demonstrations converged at the outer steps of City Hall. Members of the city's teachers union, the New Haven Federation of Teachers, marched from the Center Church on the Green to City Hall at 6:45 p.m., where bargaining units from Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital cheered them on and joined their chant


June 2002

Bill Says Firms Cannot Use State Funds to Fight Unions
(New York Times, 6/27/02)

Employers who receive state money will not be able to use it for antiunion activities, under a bill passed by the State Assembly today and agreed to by the Senate and Gov. George E. Pataki.

Street-Fighting Man:
Kurt Schmoke's parting shot at Yale's unions

(New Haven Advocate, 6/27/02)
Kurt Schmoke I, Yale undergraduate, class of 1970, would have much to say to Kurt Schmoke II, retiring member of Yale's Corporation. You can just imagine the conversation.

City teachers union prepares for contract negotiations
(New Haven Register, 6/27/02)
Members of the city teachers' union, on the verge of beginning negotiations for a new contract, have put together a "vision statement" for how to improve the city's public schools. The statement, signed by 1,061 teachers, calls for smaller class sizes, a certified teacher in every classroom, a "respectable" retirement plan and competitive salaries and medical benefits.

Governor Defends Acts During Strike in Connecticut
(New York Times, 6/26/02)

In sometimes terse and evasive testimony that drew admonitions from a federal judge, Gov. John G. Rowland today defended his administration's hiring of replacement nursing-home workers last year after 4,500 union members walked off the job.

Rowland Testifies In Nursing Home Case
(Hartford Courant, 6/26/02)
Just days before his scheduled announcement that he will seek re-election, Gov. John G. Rowland spent Tuesday in one of the few public places that an incumbent doesn't want to be: on the witness stand, getting grilled by a lawyer in a case against the state.

Governor testifies in strike case
(New Haven Register, 6/26/02)

Governor John G. Rowland took the stand Tuesday for the first time in his eight years as governor, testifying that it was "wrong for workers to leave 4,000 or possibly 5,000 frail people on their own" during a strike last year at 39 unionized nursing homes.

Budget Chief Defends Nursing Home Payments
(Hartford Courant, 6/25/02)
The state paid for replacement workers during last year's strike at private nursing homes to protect the health and safety of thousands of elderly residents, the state's budget chief testified Monday.

Rowland To Testify In Union Lawsuit
(Hartford Courant, 6/24/02)
Gov. John G. Rowland will find himself in an unfamiliar position Tuesday, when he is scheduled to testify in federal court about the state paying for replacement workers during a nursing home strike last year.

Trying John Rowland
The governor used tax dollars to break a strike. Can he get away with it?

(New Haven Advocate, 6/20/02)
Fifteen nursing home workers are perched on the right side of the wood-paneled Bridgeport courtroom, some wearing purple union shirts. The state bureaucrats sit on the opposite side, wearing serious expressions that match their suits. The Skakel trial it's not. For most of the day, one reporter takes notes amid sparsely populated benches. The media gaggle won't descend until June 25, when Gov. John Rowland takes the stand to explain his actions during a nursing home strike last year.

They Won't Go Quietly
A neighborhood files suit against New Haven's eminent domain machine

(New Haven Advocate, 6/20/02)
Gloria Batiste. Gertrude Carney. Harold Carney. Harry L. Daniels Jr. Wynita Douglass. Arlease Edwards. Jerry Edwards. Sydney Graham. Valerie Graham. Henry Hamilton. Leroy Hamilton. Cecelia Harris. Margaret Harris. Norman Harris. Robert Earl Howard. Attley F. Jackson. Crystal Johnson. Patricia Johnson. Cibyl Johnson. Onelio Leon. Neville Lewis. Maria Luas. Tammie McClain. Francisca Monta. Marco Nieves. Amy Pittman. Ana M. Ramirez. Raphael Ramirez. Garfield Reid. Quintus Reid. Alicia Roman. Luis M. Santaella. Sarah Senior. Charlene Smith. Linda Smith. Shannon Smith. Sarah Streater. George Torres. Elias Valentin.

Retirement Rules Gone, the Ivory Tower Goes Gray
(New York Times, 6/19/02)
At 78, Robert G. Shulman remains an active and distinguished member of the academic community at Yale.

Census Finds Rising Tide, and Many Who Missed Boat
(New York Times, 6/17/02)
If the lingering question about the economic boom of the late 1990's remains how widely or narrowly were the winnings shared, the answer has long been expected to lie in the 2000 census data on income and poverty. But as the numbers began rolling out in recent weeks, they struck some people as counterintuitive: Amid the longest peacetime expansion ever, median income actually dropped and poverty rose in a handful of surprising places.

Airport Jobs Secure, for now
(Hartford Courant, 6/15/02)
Gov. John G. Rowland has signed legislation protecting, at least temporarily, the jobs of about 100 food-service workers at Bradley International Airport ... Kevin Ball, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders Union Local 217, which represents the airport workers, said passage of the worker-retention bill was "a great win, not just for the employees at Bradley but for all Connecticut workers."

Most Health Centers Strong
Many Distressed, But None In Danger

(Hartford Courant, 6/14/02)
Connecticut's long-ailing hospitals are still sick, but none is in imminent danger of dying, a new report by state hospital regulators concludes.

Hospitals fiscally ailing
'Checkup' shows none in danger of closing

(New Haven Register, 6/14/02)
The latest checkup on the fiscal health of Connecticut's hospitals showed many suffering, including seven whose condition worsened from the prior year, according to a state report issued Thursday.

Board offers one-time $30,000 buyouts to principals
(New Haven Register, 6/12/02)
The New Haven Board of Education has offered principals a one-time $30,000 buyout to retire early in hopes of saving $750,000 in the coming fiscal year. But that offer, extended only to the union that covers school principals and central office educators, has rankled rank-and-file teachers, who question why they weren't offered the "golden handshake" that has become popular in a spring of citywide budget cutbacks.

Unions Split On Jepsen, Curry
Health Care Workers, Teachers Offer Gubernatorial Endorsements

(Hartford Courant, 6/12/02)
Democratic gubernatorial candidate George C. Jepsen has received the backing of the state's largest union of health care workers, while fellow Democrat Bill Curry has picked up endorsements from two smaller unions.

Union Chief Testifies In Lawsuit Vs. State
(Hartford Courant, 6/11/02)
The head of a union suing Gov. John G. Rowland over the use of taxpayer-funded replacement workers during a nursing home strike last year took the stand Monday as the case went to trial. Jerry Brown, president of the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, contends that the state illegally interfered in contract negotiations by paying for replacement workers to care for residents at 39 nursing private homes.

U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Union Reach Agreement on Bargaining Unit for TA's
(Chronicle of Higher Education, 6/10/02)
After weeks of negotiations and years of bickering and legal battles, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its graduate students have struck a deal about who should be in a proposed union for teaching assistant ... The agreement is a victory for the union, which has been fighting for recognition for several years. In 2001, the group suffered a serious setback when the Illinois Labor-Relations Board issued guidelines excluding all teaching and research assistants from the proposed union. The situation changed this spring, when students held a sit-in at the university's administration building, prompting officials to meet with the union leaders for the first time.

UI going back to work
(New Haven Register, 6/10/02)

A 25-day strike ended Sunday night after United Illuminating Co. workers overwhelmingly approved a contract that gives them double the yearly raise they originally were offered and allows them to shop for their own medical plans.

Union chief backs UI contract offer
(New Haven Register, 6/8/02)

The head of the labor union representing 360 striking utility workers at United Illuminating Co. urged his members to approve the company's latest contract offer.

Faith-based group wins $40,000 grant
(New Haven Register, 6/7/02)

The Rev. W. David Lee, Bishop William Philpot and Althea Marshall, consulting director of Dixwell Pastors for Economic Development, Thursday announced a $40,000 grant to provide summer employment for 10 to 15 teen-agers from low- to moderate-income families.

Lee should put education to better use
(New Haven Register, 6/6/02)
By former New Haven Alderman Anthony Dawson
Lee qualified for the board because he's a Yale graduate. Yet, from the outset of his campaign, he faced more angry brickbats than a wet alley cat screeching in the rain at 4 a.m.

Yale, city need 2-way partnership
(New Haven Register, 6/6/02)
By New Haven Alderman John Halle

Lee's campaign made vivid for many New Haveners something that we all knew at the back of our minds, but might have forgotten amidst the talk of "a new partnership" between Yale and the city - Yale sees partnership as a one-way street. When they say partnership, they mean that Yale, or more specifically, Yalies, should take a more active role in New Haven affairs.

New Haven benefits from its scholarly tenant
(New Haven Register, 6/6/02)
By Yale Corporation Member Benjamin Carson

When I had the opportunity to speak to thousands of New Haven school children and their parents at Yale this spring, I told them I was proud of the numerous programs that my alma mater has established in New Haven under the leadership of President Richard C. Levin, who has lived in the city for more than 30 years.

"Partners" in Parking
(New Haven Advocate, 6/6/02)

Coming home to parts of New Haven's Hill neighborhood after a hard day's work means circling the block 10 times, sometimes parking as many as four blocks away. Why? All the on-street parking spots are taken by Yale medical and hospital employees.

Chapters 2: The verdicts are in. Phil DeLieto and Rev. W. David Lee weigh their next moves
(New Haven Advocate, 6/6/02)
Lee, pastor of one of New Haven's oldest black churches, received the verdict last Thursday while enjoying a Chinese buffet luncheon in Hamden Plaza. He'd just finished his General Tsao's chicken and was diving into the fruit cocktail when his cell phone rang. It was Yale President Rick Levin. Levin informed Lee that he had lost his maverick campaign for an alumni seat on Yale's corporate board.

There's never a dull day in the oil and gas business
(Toronto Globe and Mail, 6/3/02)
Expect the unexpected in the oil and gas business. Shell Canada and Compton Petroleum can attest to that adage on the corporate side, and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein would concur on the political sid ... Compton is getting some bad press from certain unions at Yale University in articles posted on http://www.yaleinsider.org.

Lee hopes to strengthen Yale ties
(New Haven Register, 6/1/02)

The Rev. W. David Lee and his supporters, stung by the magnitude of his defeat in the sometimes bitter Yale Corporation election, nevertheless are pondering their next moves in building a "partnership" between Yale and the city.


May 2002

Architect Lin wins seat on Yale board
(New Haven Register, 5/31/02)
Following the most divisive election campaign in Yale's history, architect Maya Lin has won a seat on the Yale Corporation, decisively defeating the Rev. W. David Lee by more than 33,000 votes.

Unions, Yale dispute meaning of consultant's departure
(Yale Daily News, 5/30/02)

Leaders of locals 34 and 35 questioned the University's commitment to working with the unions and raised doubts about the possibility of a peaceful resolution to contract negotiations after last week's departure of the labor-management consultant hired to oversee bargaining.

Labor council joins UI pickets
(New Haven Register, 5/30/02)

The Greater New Haven Labor Council Wednesday made good on its promise to back striking United Illuminating Co. workers.

Tally due today on Yale seat election
(New Haven Register, 5/29/02)
Certifying the results of the Yale Corporation election is becoming nearly as contentious as the campaign itself.

500 union backers show up at Yale
(New Haven Register, 5/28/02)
Clutching signs reading "Partnership: A fair process for unionizing" and other slogans, about 500 pro-union Yale employees Monday lined the traditional university commencement procession route along the Green.

Yale graduates 2,625 amid union woes, 9/11 thoughts
(New Hvaen Register, 5/28/02)

Amid prayerful references to Sept. 11 and a silent vigil of union members seeking improved relations with the university, about 2,625 Yale graduates Monday managed to have their day of whimsy, laughs and celebration.

Yale unions to hold vigil today
(New Haven Register, 5/27/02)
Yale unions' plans for a silent vigil at today's university commencement ceremony have been given "an edge" by university officials' removing a labor consultant from negotiations.

Two Unions Vie to Represent N.Y.U. Adjuncts
(New York Times, 5/27/02)
Two powerful labor unions -- the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of Teachers -- are battling to represent the adjunct professors at New York University, a corps of nearly 3,000 part-time teachers at the low end of the academic totem pole.

Power Politics at Yale
(The Nation, 6/3/02)
As a Russian studies major at Yale in the 1970s, I observed Soviet "elections" that were conducted more fairly than the 2002 Yale Corporation's board of trustees election. Why is the Yale Corporation so threatened by the candidacy of a prominent New Haven pastor who cares about Yale and its workers?

Upstart candidate shakes up Yale board
Black church leader challenges Maya Lin

(The Connecticut Post, 5/26/02)
As a boy growing up in Ansonia, the Rev. W. David Lee was inspired by Calvin Hill, who earned a name for himself on the Yale gridiron and went on to become a Dallas Cowboys star running back.

Candidate Shakes Up Yale Board Vote
(Associated Press, May 25, 2002)
The centuries-old custom of quietly assembling a board of trustees at Yale University is generating debate among alumni as one of the contenders breaks from tradition by loudly campaigning for a seat.

Unions support strikers at utility
Will join pickets if no agreement by Wednesday

(New Haven Register, 5/24/02)

A coalition of New Haven area labor unions is throwing its support behind striking United Illuminating Co. workers.

Ask Lee what his motives, ideas are
(New Haven Register, letter to editor, 5/23/02)

The editorial supporting Maya Lin, along with letters, e-mail, memos, and reprints of endorsements for her candidacy for the Yale Corporation's Board of Trustees sent by Yale have come to my attention. I am surprised by the strong anti-Rev. W. David Lee bias in all these communications.

Rhetoric of vote empty when union is the issue
(New Haven Register, letter to editor, 5/16/02)
Elections are not democratic when they involve coercion or when their results can be held up indefinitely in court. Two recent examples show that these are very real dangers.

Air both sides in Union Drive
(New Haven Register Editorial, 5/16/02)
Workers have a right to seek union representation, and if successful, to have the union bargain for them with their employers. If at least 30 percent of an employer's workers sign union cards, a federally supervised election process kicks in that ends with a secret ballot on whether a union will represent the workers.

Food service staffers at Bradley Airport deserve jobs
(New Haven Register, Letter to the Editor, 5/15/02)
I am a member of Local 217, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees. I don't want to see McDonald's come into the airport, take over the concession and toss the workers aside.

Weathering the Storm
In uncertain investment climate, biotech in Connecticut inches toward critical mass

(Business New Haven, 5/13/02)
Biotechnology, the industry that succeeded it as new, sexy and hot, has burned with the same, high-tech fever as the field for entrepreneurs and investors in the new millennium Ñ even if investment in the sector nationwide slowed in the first quarter, plunging by 32 percent from the last quarter of 2001.

At Yale University, Ivy vs. Grass Roots
(The Washington Post, 5/10/02)
There are those at Yale University who firmly believe that the Rev. W. David Lee is a dangerous man, a stalking-horse and potentially a threat to America's proudly perennial No. 2 institution of higher learning. They use words like "corruption" to describe his efforts to join the 19-member corporation that runs the university, and privately, they belittle him as ambitious yet insignificant, a nobody and a spoiler, a puppet of dark forces bent on soiling their shining city on a hill.

Best Hope for Labor Peace:
Can Yale & its "partner" unions get over the hospital/GESO hump?

(New Haven Advocate, 5/9/02)
Yale's unions had something remarkable to say about Yale's president at a rally. Something nice.

Law Students Labor 'Road Map' Lost on Management
(New Haven Register, 5/8/02)

There is a better way to determine whether workers want to join a labor union, according to a report scheduled to be released today by a group of Yale Law School students. Instead of using a traditional card count neutrality agreement, or an NLRB-supervised ballot election, workers and management should enter into a private negotiated agreement to work out a tailor-made procedure, according to the group's report.

Main Yale-worker issue is whether most want to join union
(New Haven Register, 5/8/02)
One of the most contentious issues dividing labor and management in the organizing drives at Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale University is how to determine whether a majority of the workers want to be in a union.

Clergy Upset by Yale 'Behavior'
(New Haven Register, 5/8/02)

Members of a group of local clergy told Yale's president they are offended by implications from university officials that Yale Corporation petition candidate the Rev. W. David Lee is merely a labor union "special interest" figure.

Y-NH Facing Overhaul
Residency program threatened

(New Haven Register, 5/7/02)
Yale-New Haven Hospital has agreed to hire moonlighting doctors and improve sloppy bookkeeping to keep a national group from yanking the hospital's surgical residency program.

Heated Corporation Race Nears Finish
(Yale Alumni Magazine, May 2002)
Perhaps the only thing that everyone can agree on about this year's election for Alumni Fellow of the Yale Corporation is that there's never been anything like it.
Letters to the Editor about Yale Corp. Race

Yale's Unions Enlist Grassroots Hispanic Support
(New Haven Advocate, 5/1/02)
There was one noticeable difference when labor converged on a Yale Medical School courtyard on Cedar Street last Wednesday: Hispanics. Hundreds of Hispanics. Hispanics who don't work at Yale. Hispanics who don't belong to unions. Hispanics who don't usually show up at New Haven political events.

A watershed year for labor relations
Bargaining, election methods re-evaluated

(The Yale Daily News, 5/1/02)

For most Yale undergraduates, the ins and outs of daily of life on campus during the last year was rather routine. Students ate in dining halls, solicited advice from their college administrative assistants, and called maintenance workers when their rooms needed repairs.

Town-gown key to negotiations
University, unions strive to win community support

(The Yale Daily News, 5/1/02)

Beginning late last year, an organization with strong ties to Yale's labor unions began releasing a series of reports criticizing Yale's role in New Haven.

Report urges Yale to seek new organization methods
(The Yale Daily News, 5/1/02)

In a report called "When Bad Labor Relations Go Good: a Roadmap for Labor Peace at Yale," the Right To Organize Monitoring Committee plans to recommend that Yale seek alternative methods to address unionizing drives by graduate students and Yale-New Haven Hospital workers.

The quickly outdated Yale Corporation election process
(The Yale Daily News Editorial, 5/1/02)

If anything is certain in this year's bizarre Yale Corporation election, it is that the Rev. W. David Lee's DIV '93 highly unorthodox candidacy has forced the Yale community to reflect upon both the role of the Corporation in the University affairs and the nature of individual trusteeship. As the year winds to a close, students, alumni and administrators should take this opportunity to decide what was truly problematic -- as opposed to simply unprecedented -- in the race, and how best to prevent such difficulties from surfacing in the future.

University retains outside firm to count ballots in Corporation race
(The Yale Daily News, 5/1/02)
The University has retained an outside company to count the ballots in the Yale Corporation election between the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 and Maya Lin '81 ARC '86, marking yet another first for this year's contentious election.

Corp. race sparks new interest in some alums
Board elections not so boring anymore, some alumni say

(The Yale Daily News, 5/1/02)

As alumni decide whether to cast their vote for the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 or Maya Lin '81 ARC '86 in this year's Yale Corporation race, some say the election has sparked a new interest in a process that had previously been remarkable only for its banality.

Board of Aldermen to consider endorsing Lee
(The Yale Daily News, 5/1/02)

A Board of Aldermen committee briefly debated a bill to endorse the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 in his bid for the Yale Corporation Tuesday night, eventually choosing to stop so the entire Board of Aldermen could debate the issue next Monday.

Columbia TAs, RAs strike for union
(The Yale Daily News, 5/1/02)

Chanting "Columbia works because we do," hundreds of graduate students, clerical workers and union supporters rallied outside the main gates of Columbia University during a one-day strike Monday to protest the university's appeal of a March graduate student union election.


April 2002

UMass sit-in ends with 34 arrests
Resident assistants press labor dispute with administration

(The Boston Globe, 4/30/02)
A group of 34 students and union activists were arrested at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst yesterday after they staged a sit-in to protest the school's refusal to bargain with the fledgling resident assistants union, said Barbara Pitoniak, university spokeswoman.

Columbia Graduate Assistants Strike to Support Union Effort
(The New York Times, 4/30/02)
Hundreds of graduate teaching and research assistants at Columbia University went on strike yesterday, disrupting classes and student office hours in a one-day protest aimed at gaining the right to unionize.

Looking to be a New Voice on the Yale Board
A Proud Allegiance with Labor Unions and a Reputation as a Mediator

(The New York Times, Connecticut Section, Sunday 4/28/02)
The Rev. W. David Lee, who is waging the most public campaign that Yale has ever seen for a seat on its board of trustees, has acquired a reputation as a mediator during the nearly four years he has led his prominent New Haven church. As pastor of Varick A.M.E. Church, one of the city's oldest and largest black congregations, Mr. Lee, 37, has often found himself serving as a spokesman and advocate on issues ranging from racial profiling to affordable housing.

What's Up With Peaceful, Love-Fest Union Rally?
(The Hartford Courant, Column, 4/27/02)
What the heck kind of union rally do you call what happened on Yale's Harkness lawn on Thursday? Music, dancing, food, drink, entertainment - really fun music: soul, techno, reggae, calypso, salsa!

Famous names often lead to Corporation seats
Yale Corp. races from the past inform the contest of the present
.
(The Yale Herald, 4/26/02)
A dozen years before her husband won the presidency in 1992 and 20 years before she won a seat in the U.S. Senate, Hillary Clinton, LAW '73, lost an election. In 1980, the Association of Yale Alumni (AYA) nominated Clinton for a seat on the Yale Corporation, the University's highest governing body.

Corporation used to consensus, but majority rules
(Yale Daily News, 4/26/02)
As the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 has campaigned for a spot on the Yale Corporation, supporters have emphasized the value of having a local voice on the University's highest governing body, and opponents have warned against electing as a trustee a man whom they say is beholden to special interests. But both Lee and Yale President Richard Levin said that one trustee cannot disrupt the Corporation's business and must work with other members to achieve his goals.

A newfound graduate student majority
(Yale Daily News Editorial, 4/26/02)
For those without attachments to either side of the ongoing teaching assistant unionization debate, it's simply hard to know what to think of GESO's latest move.

Unions Send Yale Message
(New Haven Register, 4/25/02)
A sea of blue "partnership" flags filled a courtyard next to Yale-New Haven Hospital Wednesday as several thousand union supporters called for a new relationship with the administrations of Yale University and the hospital.

Yale's tactics in election distressing
(New Haven Register, 4/25/02)
We are ministers in New Haven. We call upon the Yale officers and the members of the Yale Corporation to take the high road in the forthcoming election of an alumni fellow to the Yale Corporation.

The Corporation and Lee
By U.S. Congressman Sherrod Brown
(Yale Daily News, letter to editor, 4/25/02)
As a Russian studies major at Yale in the 1970s, I observed Soviet "elections" that were conducted more fairly than the alumni fellow 2002 election. Why is the Yale Corporation so threatened by the candidacy of a prominent New Haven pastor who cares about Yale and its workers?

Unions rally with call for partnership
(Yale Daily News, 4/25/02)
Amid chants of "A better Yale, a better community," nearly 2,000 Yale workers and union supporters packed the lawn of the Harkness Dormitory at the School of Medicine yesterday to rally for a new partnership between Yale and its unions.

Yale, unions reach accord on temps
(Yale Daily News, 4/25/02)
Negotiators for Yale and its unions reached an agreement on the use of casual and temporary workers Tuesday, resolving one of the major issues of contention between the two sides during the two-month negotiation process.

Creating a Yale we're all proud to be a part of
(Yale Daily News, Column by Jacob Remes, 4/24/02)
I love Yale. People sometimes doubt it and act confused when I say it, but it's true. I love Yale because I am Yale. More than anything else, Yale is a community, and all of us in that community -- students, faculty, workers -- are what make up Yale.

Yale Bites Back:
Panicked by a Dixwell pastor's bid for a board seat, Yale bares its fangs

(New Haven Advocate, 4/24/02)
Rule #1: Planning to run an underhanded hardball political campaign? Start by accusing your opponent of running an underhanded hardball political campaign, something you're above doing. --The Insider's Guide to Cut-Throat Campaigning, as interpreted by Yale University.
LTE: Where there's Schmoke there's Fire

Yale, Worker Relations Fraying
(Hartford Courant, 4/23/02)
The recently chummy relationship between Yale administrators and university workers is beginning to show strains.

GESO to announce majority support
Exact number of signed cards uncertain

(Yale Daily News, 4/23/02)

Unlocking the mystery of the Yale Corporation
(Yale Daily News, 4/23/02)
For decades, the Yale Corporation has remained a mystery to all but a few University insiders. Its deliberations are almost entirely confidential, its rules are generally unknown, and its members are not prone to stand out.

Voting against Yale: Why some alumni prefer Lee
(Yale Daily News, Column by Michael Barbaro, 4/23/02)
The Association of Yale Alumni should be worried about Kate Coon '73.

AYA's alumni letters
(Yale Daily News LTE, 4/22/02)
I read with dismay Maureen Doran's "clarification" of the AYA Board of Governors' inappropriate campaigning against Yale Corporation candidate Rev. W. David Lee

Lee garners support of Philadelphia City Council
(Yale Daily News, 4/22/02)
Yale Corporation candidate the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 can now add the City Council of Philadelphia to his growing list of supporters.

Yale must pay up on hospital taxes
(New Haven Register, 4/19/02)
The city's assessor has notified Yale University officials they must pay taxes on all 7,000-square-feet of the commercial properties at the Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital.

Graduate students OK contract
Temple students voted to approve a deal that increases salaries. It is the 1st of its kind in Pa.

(Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/19/02)
A five-year struggle by Temple University graduate students to unionize culminated last night when the students overwhelmingly approved a contract that dramatically increases base salaries and improves health benefits.

GESO a polarizing voice for reform
(Yale Daily News, 4/19/02)
At a recent open forum, GESO Chairwoman Anita Seth GRD '05 said the debate over whether to have a graduate student union was irrelevant. Instead, Seth contended, there had been a graduate student union -- even without recognition -- at Yale for over 10 years.

Adjunct faculty at NYU to hold union election
(Yale Daily News, 4/19/02)
Adjunct faculty at New York University announced an agreement Thursday between their union, Adjuncts Come Together-United Automobile Workers, and NYU administration to hold a union election.

After unionizing, bus drivers worried
(Yale Daily News, 4/19/02)
New Haven students may have April vacation this week, but it has been no holiday for some of their bus drivers. On April 12, bus drivers at New Haven's First Student Inc. voted 119 to 36 in favor of union representation.

Levin becomes a director of company with investors tied to Yale
(Yale Daily News, 4/18/02)

Yale President Richard Levin was appointed Monday to the board of directors for Satmetrix Systems, based out of Mountain View, Calif ... Two of Satmetrix's major investors are Sutter Hill Ventures, whose managing director is Yale Corporation successor trustee G. Leonard Baker '64, and Stanford University, whose former president Gerhard Casper LAW '62 is also a successor trustee on the Corporation.

Clarifying misconceptions about the AYA letters
By Maureen Doran, Chairwoman of the AYA Board of Governors
(Yale Daily News, 4/18/02)
Tuesday's Yale Daily News took the Association of Yale Alumni's Board of Governors to task for expressing its views to alumni about the current Yale alumni fellow election.

Lee campaign casts wider net with talk in New York
(Yale Daily News, 4/18/02)
As the elevator stopped on the 20th floor of New York City's venerable Yale Club yesterday afternoon, solitary pairs of alumni -- as diverse in race as they were in age -- trickled into the club's Grand Ballroom to hear about one New Haven minister's vision for the University's future.

Yale Corporation approves $361 million for construction projects
(New Haven Register, 4/18/02)
... Levin said the corporation also received an update on the university's negotiations with Locals 34 and 35 for new contracts. "We're aware of the unions' concerns of organizing other units," Levin said, referring to efforts by graduate students and Yale-New Haven Hospital service workers to form unions. "But we think we can reach agreements on the new contracts and forge better relationships (with Locals 34 and 35) even as organizing efforts proceed on a separate track," Levin said.

Yale alumni group raps Lee for accepting union money
(New Haven Register, 4/18/02)
The Association of Yale Alumni has sent a letter to more than 100,000 alumni, criticizing Yale Corporation petition candidate Rev. W. David Lee for accepting union money during his campaign. Some alumni have reacted angrily to the mailing and an earlier letter. They say they might vote for Lee to protest the AYA's actions.

Two Campaigns for the Corporation
(Yale Daily News, Editorial, 4/17/02)
Campaign leaflet by campaign leaflet, the Yale Corporation election is starting to look more and more like a Cold War-style proxy battle, with Yale and its labor unions throwing their financial and ideological backing behind opposing candidates in the race.

Unions upset by anti-Lee rhetoric
(Yale Daily News, 4/17/02)
After several recent mailings regarding this year's Yale Corporation election, union leaders objected to what they called "disappointing" criticisms of financial ties between Corporation candidate the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 and Yale's unions.

Yale did not give names for trustee race mailings
(Yale Daily News, 4/17/02)
Two e-mails sent to alumni by a group opposing the Rev. W. David Lee's DIV '93 Yale Corporation bid have aroused the suspicions of Lee supporters over the group's ties to the Yale administration. But Association of Yale Alumni Executive Director Jeffrey Brenzel said the group has received no University assistance in compiling its contact information.

Biotech's Exiting Wounds
New Haven Losing Jobs More as Firms Outgrow it

(The Boston Globe, 4/17/02)
Two months ago, CuraGen Corp. of New Haven completed its purchase of 88 acres in nearby Branford, Conn. If all goes according to plan, the growing biotech firm will break ground for new lab and headquarters buildings within weeks, and it could start moving to the new facilities next summer. CuraGen will take with it more than 225 jobs.

AYA criticizes Lee in letter to alumni
(Yale Daily News, 4/16/02)

Continuing the onslaught of literature in this year's highly controversial Yale Corporation election, the Association of Yale Alumni Board of Governors expressed concern about the candidacy of the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 in a strongly worded letter mailed Friday to about 115,000 alumni.

Letter to Editor:
Rev. Lee's qualifications (4/16/02)

Yale, unions offer different predictions
Administrators and union officials disagree over timeline for final contracts

(Yale Daily News, 4/15/02)

University officials and union leaders are offering different predictions for when final contracts will be settled, despite reaching a major agreement last week.

Vote for Seat at Yale Table Ruffles Establishment
(New York Daily News, 4/14/02)

In the world according to Yale University, people see him and think: black preacher. People see her and think: Vietnam Memorial, that black wall so many people hated way back when but now find a moving tribute to the fallen of a generation.

Union-Backed Nominee for Board Has Yale Upset
(The New York Times, 4/11/02)
Every year the Yale University alumni vote to elect one of their number to a six-year term on the Yale corporation, the university's top governing body. It is normally a sleepy affair with just a few candidates and none of the messy machinations of a political campaign.

Thousands spent on Corp. race mailings
Lee campaign and Lin supporters conduct expensive mailbox war

(Yale Daily News, 4/11/02)
Both campaigns have mailed tens of thousands of dollars worth of materials, raising questions about funding disclosure and access to alumni contact information, in the most hotly contested election in the history of Yale's highest governing body ... Chauncey estimated that his group has spent $80,000 in total.

The first breakthrough in negotiations
(Yale Daily News Editorial, 4/11/02)
For most of this academic year, University administrators and leaders from Yale's unions have openly committed themselves to a new approach to their historically tempestuous relationship. This week the two sides backed up their rhetoric with solid action in the form of an agreement on job security provisions for Local 35 -- the first major breakthrough in nearly three months of negotiations.

Lee campaign turns to phone banking
(Yale Daily News, 4/11/02)
His campaign for the Yale Corporation -- the most aggressive in University history -- has included mailings, e-mails, a speaking circuit and political endorsements, but now the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 has his supporters hitting the phones in his pursuit of a seat on Yale's highest policy making body.

New tone in talks, but strains remain
Tension between Yale, unions has eased

(Yale Daily News, 4/11/02)
A year ago, on the eve of contract negotiations with Yale, members of the federation representing Yale's established and would-be unions rallied on the New Haven Green.

YCC to administration: negotiate with GESO
(Yale Daily News Column, 4/10/02)
You wouldn't know it from this newspaper, but the Yale College Council did something quite remarkable late Sunday night. It called on the Yale administration to sit down with GESO representatives and decide how the question of graduate student unionization will be settled.

Yale, union reach agreement on workers' role in expansion
(The New Haven Register, 4/10/02)

Leaders of Yale's Local 35 union, representing service and maintenance workers, announced Tuesday they have reached an agreement with university officials on the major issue of job security language.

Yale, unions reach key settlements
(Yale Daily News, 4/10/02)

In the first major settlement reached during more than two months of negotiations, Yale and its unions agreed yesterday on job security provisions for Local 35, resolving what were considered to be among the most contentious issues discussed.

Anti-Lee Mailings
(Yale Daily News LTE, 4/10/02)

University women's group backs Lee for board seat
(The New Haven Register, 4/10/02)

The Yale Women's Center Political Action Committee this week declined to endorse the woman candidate for the Yale Corporation, Maya Lin, instead backing the Rev. W. David Lee.

Endorsements trickle in for Lin and Lee
Register endorsement is Lin's first; Lee draws Women's Center approval

(Yale Daily News, 4/9/02)
While the endorsements keep coming for Yale Corporation petition candidate the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93, his opponent, famed architect Maya Lin '81 ARC '86, obtained her first official endorsement.

Debate on process key in GESO dispute
(Yale Daily News, 4/9/02)

As GESO and administrators continue their longstanding disagreements on graduate student unionization, the debate has become a referendum of sorts on the traditional process for recognizing unions.

A late-night opportunity lost for the YCC
(Yale Daily News Editorial, 4/9/02)

At a Sunday night meeting that stretched well into Monday morning, the Yale College Council ultimately decided to repeal a resolution it passed last year supporting card-count neutrality as a means of forming a graduate student union. The council stopped disappointingly short, however, of actually opposing card-count neutrality. Instead, it idealistically resolved that "GESO, independent graduate students and the Yale administration should convene and determine the fairest, most expedient recourse, without coercion, to an amicable solution."

YCC reflects on marathon debate
(Yale Daily News, 4/9/02)

The day after a marathon Yale College Council meeting ended early Monday morning with the repeal of last year's resolution supporting card-count neutrality for GESO, representatives reflected on how they came to their decision.

YCC ends support of card-count neutrality
(Yale Daily News, 4/8/02)

By a vote of 22-5-1, the Yale College Council passed a resolution early this morning repealing its previous support for a card-count neutrality agreement in the graduate student unionization debate.

Council lobbied by union leaders
(Yale Daily News, 4/8/02)

One year after the Yale College Council quietly passed a resolution calling on the University to adopt a policy of neutrality toward graduate students and hospital workers attempting to unionize, an attempt by YCC members to repeal the resolution did not go so unnoticed.

AYA's letter to alumni
(Yale Daily News, Letter to Editor, 4/8/02)

I was outraged by the March 21 letter of Maureen Doran and the Association of Yale Alumni Board of Governors to alumni regarding the upcoming Alumni Fellow election.

Elect Maya Lin to Yale board
(New Haven Register Editorial, 4/7/02)

The Rev. W. David Lee is acting as if he is running for a seat on the Board of Aldermen, not the Yale Corporation, a multibillion dollar institution that is a global leader in education.

U. Mass RAs form first undergrad union
(Yale Herald, 4/5/02)

Defying university officials, on Tues., Mar. 5, the resident advisors (RAs) at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst organized the first undergraduate student union in the United States. One week later, Columbia University's undergraduate research assistants voted on unionization, despite the university's refusal to acknowledge them as employees under the National Labor Relations Act.

Unions present petition to University
(Yale Daily News, 4/5/02)

With their own union's contract under negotiation, Local 34 President Laura Smith and nearly 80 members of the clerical and technical union gathered at Woodbridge Hall yesterday to show solidarity with other groups trying to unionize, as Smith presented Yale President Richard Levin with a petition signed by 2,370 workers.

Corporation needs a real student voice
(Yale Herald, 4/5/02)

No matter who wins this clash, Yale's current students will loseÑlose their chance at having one of their own in the empty Corporation seat.

Searching for the real David Lee
(Yale Daily News, 4/5/02)

Drums reverberate and the piano roars during a three-hour Sunday service at Varick AME Zion Church, where the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 preaches to a vocal audience about the power of God and then launches into an update about his unorthodox bid for the Yale Corporation. "It can never be a true partnership if we aren't at the table," Lee says to the audience's "amen" and "praise the Lord."

It isn't the Yale way
(The Financial Times, 4/3/02)
Elections to the Yale Corporation, the university's governing board of trustees, are usually a quiet affair. But this spring's battle over the selection of an alumnus to serve a six-year term is growing into a political battle of national proportions.

Discussion links faith, labor
(Yale Daily News, 4/4/02)
A round-table discussion led by affiliates of Yale's labor unions last night emphasized the connection between one's faith and one's involvement in local labor issues.

Solidifying opposition to neutrality
(Yale Daily News Editorial, 4/3/02)
At its Sunday meeting, the Yale College Council will debate a resolution opposing the use of card-count neutrality in ongoing efforts to unionize graduate teaching assistants.

CCNE, Lee and unions join up at meeting
(Yale Daily News, 4/2/02)
Nearly 300 union members, community leaders and local residents came together at East Rock's Church of the Redeemer last night to call for a new partnership between Yale and New Haven.

Union leaders question Yale efforts in talks
(Yale Daily News, 4/2/02)
Union leaders cast doubts on the progress of negotiations in a statement yesterday, criticizing what they called a "mixed picture" of small successes coupled with disturbing trends in the University's approach to bargaining.

Reserved Lin thrust into political role
(Yale Daily News, 4/2/02)
When Pete Lalich sat down to write Maya Lin's Yale recommendation in 1976, he was almost positive she'd get in.
LTE: The Corporation Race


March 2002

City pastor banging on Yale's door
(New Haven Register, 3/31/02)

The Rev. W. David Lee says his petition campaign for a seat on the powerful Yale Corporation is a way to ensure his slain cousin did not die in vain and to "open up" Yale's governing body to Yale students and the community.

Litigating the Legacy of Slavery
(The New York Times, 3/31/02)
By Professor Charles Ogletree

The shape of a reparations strategy can already be seen. Among private defendants, corporations will be prominent, as last week's lawsuit shows. Other private institutions -- Brown University, Yale University and Harvard Law School -- have made headlines recently as the beneficiaries of grants and endowments traced back to slavery and are probable targets.

Yale possible target of reparations civil suit
(Yale Herald, 3/29/02)
Yale's historical ties to slavery and slave owners have resurfaced recently. It has come to light that a group of scholars and lawyers may sue Yale for its past ties to slavery as part of a larger effort to win financial compensation from companies and universities that the plaintiffs claim benefited from the slave trade.

City, union stuck in trash clash
(New Haven Register, 3/30/02)
After an ugly exchange Thursday between City Hall and the leaders of its public works employees' union, their beef remains in the hands of a state arbitrator.

Blumenthal latest to endorse Lee for Yale board
(New Haven Register, 3/29/02)
Political endorsements continue to roll in for the Yale Corporation bid of the Rev. W. David Lee, and the latest prominent player is state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

Levin, Lorimer, Klasky and the hypocrisy of Yale's anti-Lee campaign
(Yale Daily News, 3/28/02)
The thing about elections is that they tend to encourage campaigning. Candidates want to spread their ideas. Build a base of support. Win offices based on the strength of their convictions. Sounds pretty reasonable. Not here. Yale is shocked -- shocked!

Blumenthal endorses Lee in Corp. race
State attorney general adds to high-profile support for Lee's unorthodox campaign

(Yale Daily News, 3/28/02)
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal LAW '73 announced his support for Yale Corporation hopeful W. David Lee DIV '93 yesterday, adding his name to a growing list of high-profile University graduates and politicians who have come forward in support of the controversial candidate.

After long road, Corporation ballot is complete
(Yale Daily News, 3/28/02)
University Secretary Linda Lorimer announced yesterday that she has completed the final draft of the ballot biographies of Yale Corporation candidates the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 and Maya Lin '81 ARC '86.

Undergraduate union seeks chance to negotiate
UMass says state erred in allowing vote

(Boston Globe, 3/28/02)
When undergraduate dorm monitors at UMass-Amherst voted to form a labor union earlier this month, they thought they had won their battle for recognition. Then came the message from their university: Not so fast.

The staying power of the new tone
(Yale Daily News editorial, 3/27/02)
Nearly two months into this year's unusually tame labor negotiations, Yale and its two largest recognized unions, locals 34 and 35, have begun tackling the controversial issue of union growth.

Maya to Frances: Negative campaigning is the last thing we need
(Yale Daily News, 3/27/02)
By Jacob Remes
"From: Maya Lin '81 ARC '86 To: Frances Beinecke '71 FOR '74 Re: Campaign"

LTE: Yale Corporation Needs Student Trustees

Students get involved with Corp. election
Undergraduates contact candidates to discuss the issues

(Yale Daily News, 3/27/02)
Though undergraduates cannot vote in the upcoming Yale Corporation election pitting the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 against Maya Lin '81 ARC '86, they have been involved in a number of ways.

Corp. election heats up with opposing ads
Some Yalies support counter-campaign to defend Lee in Corporation election

(Yale Daily News, 3/27/02)
A group of undergraduates has placed a pro-Lee advertisement in the April issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine in response to a previously published anti-Lee ad.

AYA launches Web site for Corporation election
Site to provide alumni with information about candidates Lee DIV '93, Lin '81 ARC '86

(Yale Daily News, 3/26/02)
Following a special meeting of the Association for Yale Alumni Board of Governors Sunday, the AYA will make public today a Web site providing information about the upcoming Yale Corporation election

Labor negotiations to address union growth this week
Status of graduate students and hospital workers to be contentious issues

(Yale Daily News, 3/25/02)

Yale and union negotiators will discuss union growth during bargaining this week, continuing discussions on what is expected to be one of the most contentious issues as the two sides negotiate new contracts for nearly 4,000 Yale workers.

Standing up to Lee's shameful campaigning
(Yale Daily News, Letter to Editor, 3/25/02)

Many back Yale 'social contract'
(New Haven Register, 3/19/02)
Several hundred residents came to the Cathedral of Higher Praise in Fair Haven Monday night to endorse a "new social contract" between Yale and the community.

Map for Yale-city relationship good
By Robert Proto and Laura Dunn Smith
(New Haven Register, Sunday, 3/17/02)
The current contract negotiations between Locals 34 and 35 and Yale University offer an unprecedented opportunity to begin a process of positive change on campus. Seizing this opportunity requires a profound change in the culture of work at Yale. It will not be easy for anyone involved.

Day-to-day collaboration better than periodic confrontation
By Richard Levin
(The New Haven Register Sunday, 3/17/02)
Editor's note: Yale University declined to submit an article giving its perspective on the status of union contract negotiations. The following statement by Richard C. Levin, Yale's president, is excerpted from his Nov. 30 letter to the university community.

Nonprofit Groups Reach for Profits on the Side
(New York Times, 3/17/02)
The Met's parking garage is just like any other parking garage in the neighborhood, but with one big difference: the museum pays no taxes on its income from the garage because having a garage is considered important to its mission. So the parking money is tax-exempt, like the rest of the Met's income.

A Yale Election Not So Genteel
Activist Battles For Seat On University's Board

(Hartford Courant Front Page, 3/16/02)
About this time every year, Yale University alumni quietly vote to replace an outgoing member of the board of trustees, a tiny board with the outsized power to govern the university and control its endowment. In their gentility, the elections, frankly, tend to be a bore. Not so this year.

Yale vs. the Minister:
Why's Big Blue so scared of W. David Lee?

(The New Haven Advocate, 3/14/02)
The Rev. W. David Lee dresses well. He has an easy smile. He leads AME Varick, one of New Haven's most venerable black congregations. He doesn't yell or threaten. He's your basic easy-to-do-business-with Yale Divinity School grad, class of '93. Don't tell that to the people who run Yale University, though. They're convinced the Rev. Lee is a dangerous man.
Letters to Editor:
Yale's No Exception
Did Maya Lin Know?
Almost Duped

Actors' Equity pickets over non-union wages
(New Haven Register, 3/13/02)
Chanting "Give the tickets back" and "solidarity," dozens of actors and actresses turned out to protest Tuesday night's opening of the Music Man at the Shubert Theater.

Building bridges from community to Corporation
(By REV. W. DAVID LEE, Yale Daily News, 3/8/02)
University President Richard Levin has spoken eloquently of Yale's self-interest in strengthening New Haven. If Yale is to attract the best students and the best faculty, then the community surrounding Yale must be stronger and more attractive. The respective futures of town and gown are intimately intertwined and cannot be separated. They will struggle, or they will thrive, together. All concerned want both to thrive, and I am committed to building bridges that will make this possible.

Maya Lin for alumni trustee
(By HENRY "SAM" CHAUNCEY JR., Yale Daily News, 3/8/02)

As the former secretary of the University and adviser to five Yale presidents, I worked closely with the trustees of the Yale Corporation as we confronted the significant and complex challenges of running an institution comprising so many diverse constituencies.

Corporation race makes for bizarre week
Heightened profile of election process leaves some Yale officials puzzled

(Yale Daily News, 3/8/02)
The unprecedented interest in this year's Yale Corporation race between petition candidate the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 and Maya Lin '81 ARC '86 has led Yale administrators to delve into the complicated and largely unknown trustee election process.

Yale's taxable parcels argued
(New Haven Register, 3/7/02)
Yale University should be paying more taxes to the city for the commercial portion of the Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, according to one of the aldermen who approved the city's sale of the property to Yale in 1998.

Lack of administrative seniority at negotiations frustrates unions
Leaders say team lacks high-ranking officials

(Yale Daily News, 3/7/02)
As union and University negotiators continue their fourth week of work on new contracts for nearly 4,000 Yale workers, leaders from Yale's unions said they are unhappy that the University's negotiating team lacks high-ranking administrators.

Lieberman endorses Lee in Corp. bid
(Yale Daily News, 3/7/02)
U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman '64 LAW '67 is the latest and most prominent politician to endorse petition candidate the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 in his bid for a seat on the Yale Corporation.

Lee sermon angers Mayor DeStefano
City Hall stops commenting on trustee bid

(Yale Daily News, 3/7/02)
Less than a month and a half after New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. eagerly endorsed the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 at a Jan. 25 fund-raiser, sources said the mayor is upset with the Yale Corporation hopeful because of comments Lee made during a sermon at his church Sunday.

A conspicuously singular nomination
(Yale Daily News Editorial, 3/6/02)

By selecting only Lin to face the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 -- whose name will appear on the ballot after his successful petition bid -- the committee has made its nomination process look suspiciously subject to external influence and contradictory to the purpose of alumni fellow elections.

Nomination of one Corporation candidate unusual
Lin selection a deviation from tradition

(Yale Daily News, 3/6/02)

The nomination of Maya Lin '81 ARC '86 for the Yale Corporation appears to mark the first time the Alumni Fellow Nominating Committee has selected only one candidate for the alumni trustee ballot, Yale President Richard Levin said.

NOSAY decries recent USAY movement
(Yale Daily News, 3/6/02)

Yale College has over 300 undergraduate organizations, but only one "non-organization."

UMass dorm monitors OK union
Backers hail move as start of US trend

(Boston Globe, 3/6/02)
After years of opening their doors to find everything from threatening notes to smeared shaving cream, students at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst voted yesterday to form the nation's first union of undergraduate dorm monitors.

Lieberman endorses Lee for Yale Corp. seat
(New Haven Register, 3/6/02)
U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Tuesday endorsed the Rev. W. David Lee in his campaign for a seat on the Yale Corporation.

U. Michigan profs plan for possible grad student instructor strike
(Michigan Daily, 3/5/02)
With the possibility of a graduate student instructor walk-out on Monday and an extended strike afterward, University of Michigan professors face the loss of an integral part of their classes.

GESO's strongarm tactics an affront to democracy
(By JUSTIN ZAREMBY, Yale Daily News, 3/5/02)
The lemmings who blindly follow the GESO leadership and express their beliefs not in a series of questions and answers, but through jeers and hisses, lack character. The free thinking that Yale attempts to inculcate is undermined by their actions.

GESO criticisms based on a lack of understanding
(By LAURA PEDRAZA AND BRIAN CASEY, Yale Daily News, 3/5/02)
The question we should be asking ourselves is why an event intended for all graduate students, faculty and community members was held at a location that accommodates barely one-fifth of the graduate student population. The town meeting was scheduled to take place at the Center Church on the Green. GESO, GSA, and GASO agreed to this plan ...

GESO wrongly vilified after town meeting
(By Caroline Fitzpatrick, Yale Daily News, 3/4/02)
I was saddened to read the Yale Daily News' misguided editorial on the town meeting in Friday's paper, as it seems to have been written with little or no consideration of the facts.

Rank and file optimistic about labor negotiations
Concerns still remain for some workers

(Yale Daily News, 3/4/02)
As union leaders bargain for new contracts, workers in locals 34 and 35 said they are hopeful, if not entirely well-informed, about this year's negotiation process.

UMass dorm leaders urged to reject union
(Boston Globe, 3/2/02)
A group of students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst is preparing for a vote Tuesday that would form the nation's first undergraduate union of dorm monitors, but campus administrators are aggressively lobbying them to vote against the union.

Maya Lin vying with minister for seat on Yale board
(New Haven Register, 3/2/02)
The next member of the powerful Yale Corporation will be either a black community activist or the first Asian-American woman ever to sit on the board.

Maya Lin nominated for Corporation Seat
(Yale Daily News, 3/1/02)
The Alumni Nominating Committee has selected Maya Lin '81 ARC '86 -- the esteemed architect of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Washington, D.C.; the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala.; and the Women's Table at Yale -- as the second and final candidate on the ballot for the Yale Corporation.

T-shirts dominate labor talks
(Yale Daily News, 3/1/02)
Beginning the third week of bargaining on contracts for nearly 4,000 Yale workers, Brian Tunney, Yale's director of labor relations and lead negotiator, surprised bargaining team members on both sides with gifts: T-shirts bearing the phrase "+7's" in white writing, a reference to the new tone of cooperation University and union leaders have been trying to achieve.

University faces budget difficulties
(Yale Daily News, 3/1/02)
While the overall size of the $1.4 billion Yale budget will grow in fiscal year 2003, an unsettled national economy and the increasing costs associated with long-term University initiatives will make planning the budget more difficult ... Yale is currently in contract negotiations with its two largest unions. Since this relationship has been tumultuous in the past, the contract renewal process may further complicate the budget planning process.

Hospital workers present neutrality petition to Yale
(Yale Daily News, 3/1/02)
With union leaders, hospital workers, and a cadre of police officers looking on at Woodbridge Hall, organizers for Yale-New Haven Hospital employees seeking to form a union presented on Thursday a petition asking Yale and the hospital for neutrality.

Yale, unions still hammering away
(New Haven Register, 3/1/02)
Union activity heated up this week at Yale, with a raucous "town meeting" on graduate student unionization and Yale-New Haven Hospital workers delivering a pro-union petition reportedly containing 1,190 signatures.

Is GESO afraid of an open, candid debate?
(Yale Daily News, 3/1/02)
Wednesday night, the Graduate Student Assembly hosted a town meeting on graduate student unionization with the expressed goal of fostering a campus-wide discussion on the ongoing issues concerning graduate student unionization.

A GESO monopoly on the town meeting
(Yale Daily News, Editorial, 3/1/02)
It sounded too good to be true. And, indeed, it was. First, many GESO members arrived an hour early and claimed nearly all the seats . . .


February 2002

Grad Student Unionization Forum Heated
(Yale Daily News, 2/28/02)

As Yale police manned the entrances to the Yale University Art Gallery lecture hall, nearly 400 graduate students poured into the tension-ridden room for Wednesday night's "Town Meeting on Graduate Student Unionization at Yale." An overwhelmingly majority of the students were wearing stickers and pins supporting the Graduate Employees and Students Organization, as were many of the 100-plus people who were turned away and sent to watch a simulcast in the Hall of Graduate Studies.

Labor Board Rules that NYU denied tenure to union backer
(New York Times, 2/28/02)

Officials in the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board said yesterday that they have decided to charge New York University with illegally denying tenure to a professor who had testified in favor of allowing N.Y.U. graduate students to unionize.

Tensions Between Lee, Yale Increase
(Yale Daily News, 2/27/02)

As the unorthodox campaign of Yale Corporation hopeful the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 continues, University administrators have taken steps to inform alumni that Yale does not endorse Lee's candidacy.
LTE (2/28/02): The AYA's Role in the Lee Campaign

A New Kind of Corporation Election
(Yale Daily News, Editorial, 2/25/02)
With his unorthodox candidacy for the Yale Corporation, the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 has revived interest in the Corporation election and presented a chance for Yale to improve the way its alumni pick the University's trustees.

Petition Calls for More Student input
(Yale Daily News, 2/25/02)

Friday, members of United Students at Yale delivered a petition calling for greater student input in University policy-making to the office of Yale President Richard Levin. In one of the group's first concrete actions, the members presented the petition, which they said contains 3,017 undergraduate signatures to Nina Glickson, an assistant to the president.

Yale Activists Deliver Wide-Ranging Petition
(New Haven Register, 2/23/02)
Yale student activists say more than half of Yale's undergraduates have signed a petition calling on university leaders to seek greater diversity and "be a more responsible employer and citizen." "There are a total of 5,207 undergraduates at Yale," said Alek Felstiner, one of the student organizers. "We have signed up a solid majority of them, which is the first time that has happened since the Chilean grape boycott of the mid-'80s."

Advisers' Union Drive Is Gaining on Campus
(New York Times, 2/22/02)
The next frontier in unionizing just may be the college residence hall, where stereos blare and students traipse to the showers clad only in towels. The resident advisers, or R.A.'s, at the University of Massachusetts here are not what one might think of as downtrodden worker...

Promises Start, Unclear Future for Negotiations
(Yale Daily News, 2/22/02)
Negotiators from Yale and its two largest unions finished their first two days of substantive bargaining this week with progress on minor issues and cautious optimism about the future of a new process of bargaining.

Panels Offer the Union Perspective
(Yale Daily News, 2/21/02)
As negotiations between Yale and its unions started this month, a group of student organizations is working to educate the student body about the history of labor negotiations and the potential impact of this year's discussions.

Agreements reached on small issues in talks
(Yale Daily News, 2/20/02)
Negotiators for Yale and its two largest unions reached their first tentative agreements yesterday on what they called "small issues," marking the first tangible result of a new method of bargaining.

Yale should concede more to the unions
(Letter to the Editor, Yale Daily News, 2/20/02)
As an alumna and a mother of two small children, I was saddened to see that Yale is well behind its peer institutions in terms of family-friendly policies.

Lee addresses College Democrats
(Yale Daily News, 2/19/02)
His audience may not have consisted of eligible voters, but Yale Corporation candidate Rev. W. David Lee '93 is not letting the undergraduate community go ignored.

Labor talks begin with the small conflicts
(Yale Daily News, 2/18/02)
Negotiators from Yale and its unions will begin substantive bargaining today, dealing with "small" issues first as they launch the renewal process on contracts for nearly 4,000 Yale workers.

Professors Want Limits On Part-Time Faculty
(Hartford Courant, 2/15/02)
Saying the rising number of part-time faculty members at Connecticut State University is hurting students and eroding the quality of education, the union representing the university's full-time faculty is turning to the legislature to address the problem.

Ruling upholds right to unionize
(Yale Daily News, 2/15/02)
A National Labor Relations Board ruling on Tuesday will likely allow teaching assistants at Columbia University, including some undergraduates, to vote whether to form a union.

Syracuse Graduate Student TAs to Start Union
(Syracuse Daily Orange, 2/14/02)
A group of Syracuse University graduate student teaching assistants hopes to establish a union to bargain collectively with the administration for improved compensation and working conditions

NLRB rules Columbia U. TAs, graduate students entitled to unionize
(The Columbia Daily Spectator, 2/13/02)
The wait is over. In a decision that upholds precedent and lends a legal stamp of validity to the teaching assistant unionization movement at Columbia University, the Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday that teaching and research assistants at Columbia are employees of the University entitled to a union representation election.

Yale Shares Profits from AIDS Drugs
(Le Monde Diplomatique, February 2002)

In rich countries, the laboratories' pricing policies are a scam; in poor countries, they are preventing most people from getting treatment. Stavudine, used to treat AIDS, is the perfect demonstration of what is wrong with the system. It hugely profits its makers Ð and Yale University, where it was researched.

Labor consultant guides start of negotiations
(Yale Daily News, 2/14/02)
After four months of preparations for what has been a historically divisive process, Yale and its two largest unions began negotiations on contracts for nearly 4,000 Yale workers Wednesday afternoon.

Negotiations begin with subcontracting as issue
(Yale Daily News, 2/13/02)
Six years ago, negotiations between Yale and its unions broke down in part because of a dispute over Yale's demand to be able to subcontract work by hiring non-union workers for jobs typically filled by union members.

Curbing professorial coercion everywhere
(Yale Daily News, 2/13/02)

Imagine this scenario: professor X calls his graduate student into his office, closes the door, and says, "I think the two of us get along well together. I think you should come out to dinner and a movie with me next weekend." Most people -- and indeed University policy -- recognize that the professor has erred. Because of the inherently coercive nature of the professor-student relationship, such a come-on is forbidden.

Separating education from propaganda
(Yale Daily News, 2/13/02)

Union and university leaders have both constantly espoused a seemingly genuine desire to transcend their acrimonious past and forge a new, more cooperative relationship for the future. It is unfortunate that the author and publishers of a recent report on the relationship between Yale and New Haven are seemingly working to prevent that cooperation from happening, and it is embarrassing that they chose such a simplistic and potentially destructive way to do it.

Union chief in town for Yale negotiations
(New Haven Register, 2/12/02)
With Yale labor negotiations set to begin this week, union leader John Wilhelm Monday said the labor consultant's recommendations for this process call for "fundamental changes" in university management.

Mayor talks Lee, labor with Corporation
(Yale Daily News, 2/12/02)

In a speech before the Yale Corporation Friday evening, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. reiterated his support for Corporation hopeful the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 and urged the University's highest policy making body to avoid disruptive confrontations with its labor unions.

City officials take red pen to report on schools, Yale
(Yale Daily News, 2/12/02)

City leaders, University administrators and education officials have unanimously criticized a report, released last week, that calls on Yale to contribute funds to New Haven's school system.

Labor leader links unions, democratization
(Yale Daily News, 2/11/02)

Speaking shortly before the start of negotiations between Yale and its unions, labor leader John Wilhelm '67, discussed globalization and Yale's labor unions as part of Sunday night's installment of the "Democracy, Security and Justice" series.

Yale, city leaders slam critical report
(New Haven Register, 2/9/02)
Yale University should be paying more money to the city, specifically to improve its public schools, according to a new report by an activist group.

Report: Yale owes city more cash
(Yale Daily News, 2/8/02)
In a report released Thursday, a nonprofit advocacy group closely aligned with Yale's unions called for the University to embrace a "social contract" with its host city and play a more active role in public education by financing more teachers and classrooms.
Read the Report: Schools, Taxes, and Jobs

Center, Yale unions issue critical study as labor talks loom
(Yale Daily News, 2/8/02)
"Schools, Taxes and Jobs," the report released Thursday by the Connecticut Center for a New Economy, marks the third and final installment in a series of collaborative research projects between the nonprofit advocacy group and Yale's unions.

Yalies try to understand labor issues
(Yale Daily News, 2/8/02)
With negotiations between Yale and its unions beginning next week, some campus leaders are making plans to educate the campus on labor issues.

Labor to be hot topic at Corporation meeting
(Yale Daily News, 2/8/02)
Reflecting the administration's attention to the pending contract negotiations for Yale's unions, this weekend's Yale Corporation meeting will give special attention to the labor issue.

Yale, unions aiming for smooth contract negotiation
(New Haven Register, 2/8/02)
Yale's administrators and unions continued along their careful, harmonious path Wednesday, announcing they have completed "interest-based bargaining training" and will stick with a consultant when negotiations begin Wednesday.

Yale, unions agree to new approach
Interest-based bargaining adopted; negotiations to begin next week

(Yale Daily News, 2/7/02)
Union and University leaders agreed Wednesday to use a new approach suggested by a hired consultant when they begin negotiations for union contracts next week.

Impact of NYU contract unknown
Could be key step in TA union movement

(Yale Daily News, 2/6/02)

The contract reached between New York University and a teaching assistant union last week -- the first ever at a private university --has been hailed as a victory by TA union activists at NYU, Yale and across the nation. But administrators at NYU and Yale said they are reserving judgment about how universities and the graduate student union movement will be affected.

Yale, water and politics
(Denver Post, 2/5/02)

This story is about water, politics and Yale University's involvement in a plan that could have dried up precious Colorado groundwater and left already impoverished rural communities truly desperate.

Consultant's labor plan may be risky
(Yale Daily News, 2/5/02)

Last fall, union and University officials agreed to hire Stepp to help Yale and its unions address long-standing tensions. One of Stepp's recommendations -- that both sides address the organizing efforts of two groups trying to form unions -- carries the potential to bring a lingering disagreement back into the fore ... Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky held that recognition of GESO and the hospital workers is a separate issue and will not be addressed in negotiations. "They're not tied to this contract negotiation," Klasky said. "I think what Stepp was clearly saying is that this is an issue that both sides have to deal with and have to confront in some way."

Mayor: State must keep pledges to city
Also supports unionization efforts in speech

(Yale Daily News, 2/5/02)

DeStefano said last night that failure to acknowledge union-backed organizing efforts by Yale graduate students and workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital would lead to "a dramatic and unnecessary disruption" for both the city and the University. "We all ought to recognize that the organizing drives -- are a reality," said DeStefano, who brokered a deal between the University and locals 34 and 35 during the last round of negotiations in 1996. "They are going to happen."

Reaffirming the perils of neutrality
(Yale Daily News, 2/5/02)

The future of GESO and its place in the upcoming labor negotiations remains unclear, but last week's contract agreement for New York University's teaching assistant union again brings the debate about graduate student unionization to the fore.

Mayor tackles Yale, budget cuts in city address
(New Haven Register, 2/5/02)

In the mayor's most impassioned statements, he issued challenges to other entities: Yale University, Yale employees and state government. DeStefano warned Yale and its union workers, as well as Yale-New Hospital employees and graduate teaching assistants looking to unionize against confrontation.

Negotiators start training today
(Yale Daily News, 2/4/02)
The three-month pre-negotiation courtship between Yale and its unions will enter its final phase today, when negotiating teams from both sides begin training with a hired consultant.

GESO has no place in the University
(Yale Herald, 2/1/02)
Almost any debate at Yale can be a lesson in doctrinaire chest thump- ing. It's no different with the Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO).

The Slavery Legacy
(Yale Alumni Magazine, February 2002)

With a debate raging over reparations and a look at the darker side of some old heroes, Americans are again trying to come to terms with slavery. Yale's Gilder Lehrman Center looks at the subject across time and cultures.

Ranch deal prompts donation, reevaluation
Levin says that Yale will look into changing how it supervises partners

(Yale Herald, 2/1/02)
Standing at the Great Sand Dunes National Monu-ment in San Luis Valley, Colo., visitors can either admire the Rocky Mountains on one side or gaze out into the seemingly endless stretch of sand dunes on the other.

Complex Deal Is First Step to Create New National Park
(The New York Times, 1/31/02)
The Nature Conservancy announced the signing today of a $31 million purchase agreement for a 151-square- mile ranch in Colorado, a complex deal that is the first step toward creating a new national park with the adjacent Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve, in the San Luis Valley ... Yale's involvement was revealed last week by a group of union members ...


January 2002

Baca Ranch purchase paves way for new park
(Denver Post, 1/31/02)

The tallest sand dunes in North America are a major step closer to national park status with the announcement Wednesday that a private conservation group is buying a huge adjacent ranch.

N.Y.U. and Union Agree on Graduate-Student Pay
(New York Times, 1/30/02)

New York University and the United Auto Workers announced yesterday that they had reached the first union agreement between a private university and its graduate teaching and research assistants.

Lee gets backing for Yale Corp. seat
(New Haven Register, 1/30/02)
The Rev. W. David Lee, a petition candidate seeking a seat on the Yale Corporation, has had his campaign boosted by receiving endorsements from Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3.

Mayor supports Lee's trustee bid
(Yale Daily News, 1/29/02)
Welcoming impassioned pledges of support from U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., the Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 officially launched his unorthodox campaign for a spot on the Yale Corporation Friday.

Agreement prevents TD workers from striking
(Yale Daily News, 1/29/02)
Last summer, as Yale officials finalized the contracts for the renovations of Timothy Dwight College, they asked for assurances that construction workers would not walk out should Yale's unions go on strike.

Yale, Unions Are Trying To Swap Rancor For Reason
(Hartford Courant, 1/28/02)
By this time, employees should be nursing sore vocal cords, administrators should be flexing their might and students should be struggling to choose a side in what has become a traditional ritual of pomp and circumstance on the Yale campus: contract negotiations. But a week after the contract between Yale and its employees expired, the campus is remarkably calm. No strikes, no walkouts, no arrests.

Yale donates land for new national park
University acts after receiving criticism over controversial investment in Colorado ranch

(Yale Daily News, 1/28/02)
Yale President Richard Levin has agreed to donate investment profits from the sale of its interest in the 100,000-acre Baca Ranch to aid the creation of a national park in Colorado, Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said. The announcement came less than 24 hours after Colorado residents and politicians criticized Yale's involvement in a controversial water proposal at the ranch in a Denver Post report.

Allard thrilled with results of Yale-Baca Ranch talks
(The Pueblo Chieftan, 1/27/02)
U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard says he is ecstatic to get a promised donation from Yale University from the sale of the Baca Ranch. Allard contacted the university president amid controversy over reports that Yale endowments are involved in Farallon Capital Management, which owns half of the Baca Ranch.

Yale helps save sand dunes near national park
(New Haven Register, 1/26/02)
Yale University has agreed to donate some of its interest in a ranch adjacent to Great Sand Dunes National Park, which will save taxpayers millions of dollars when the ranch becomes part of the park, Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said this week.

Yale's land-sale profits will go to Dunes park
(The Denver Post, 1/25/02)

Yale University is going to donate several million dollars in profits from the pending sale of the Baca Ranch to expand the Great Sand Dunes National Monument.

Yale helped fund plan to sell San Luis water
School's secret investment sparks outrage in valley

(The Denver Post, 1/24/02)
San Luis Valley residents and some of their powerful political friends are outraged over revelations that Yale University financially backed the Baca Ranch and Stockman's Water Co. in their plan to mine the valley's groundwater.

Consultant's report may overestimate labor tension
(Yale Daily News, 1/24/02)

In the days after a consultant's report condemned the relationship between Yale and its unions as "dysfunctional," union and University leaders uniformly praised the findings as accurate.

Dwights and Wrongs
(New Haven Advocate, Letter to the Editor, 1/24/02)
I was surprised to see Dr. Robert Forbes making historical errors [The Trial of Timothy Dwight]. Theodore Dwight's anti-slavery activism did not occur after his brother Timothy Dwight's death.

Contracts extended at Yale
(New Haven Register, 1/23/02)
Yale University officials and labor leaders have agreed to extend the contracts for their workers to March 1.

Yale, union leaders extend contracts until March 1
(Yale Daily News, 1/22/02)
Though the six-year contracts for Yale's unionized workers officially expired Sunday, union and University leaders have agreed to extend the contracts until March 1

A cautious start to labor negotiations
(Yale Daily News, editorial, 1/22/02)
The decision to temporarily extend the contracts is a necessary one, but the slow pace at which talks between the parties have progressed in recent months increases the likelihood of serious conflict if a breakdown in negotiations does occur.

On MLK Day, Levin pledges better union relations
(New Haven Register, 1/22/02)
Yale University President Richard C. Levin marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a renewed pledge to improve the school's relationship with organized labor, as contract talks with its two biggest labor unions approach.

Yale's labor squabble brings back a union legend
(New Haven Register, 1/20/02)

John Wilhelm is back in town for another close encounter with Yale University over its labor unions.

Slavery Under The Elms
(Northeast Magazine, in the Sunday Hartford Courant, 1/20/02)

A Report Linking Yale's Past To Human Bondage Has Been Sitting Quietly On The University's Doorstep Since The Summer. Some Who Feel Black Americans Are Owed A Debt Want It Picked Up.

Official neutrality on GESO a necessity
(Yale Daily News, 1/17/02) By Michael Jo

I wish I didn't have to respond to professor Jon Butler's editorial about GESO, because I deeply respect him. Nevertheless, I strongly disagreed with his essay. I understand his concerns, but I believe they stem from misunderstandings of GESO's...

Neutrality won't hinder debate on graduate student unionization
(Yale Daily News, Letter to the Editor, 1/17/02)

Labor Consultant Criticizes Yale and Its Unions
(The New York Times, 1/15/02)
A consultant that Yale University and its two major labor unions chose to study Yale's rancorous labor relations issued a report yesterday that severely criticized both the university and the unions.

Report urges effort on labor
(The New Haven Register, 1/15/02)
Consultants who interviewed 120 Yale workers, management and officials about labor relations say the individuals described the situation as "highly adversarial," "often destructive" and "demoralizing."

University, unions seek new approach
(The Yale Daily News, 1/15/02)
Union and University leaders announced Monday that they would try a new approach to negotiating for union contracts this winter, hoping to replace the historically acrimonious process with one likened to a marriage.

Click here for:

Labor negotiators await report
(Yale Daily News, 1/14/02)
With less than a week until contracts for Yale's unions expire, University and union leaders are continuing to postpone the negotiation process as they meet with a labor-management consultant to try to soothe the historically tense relationship between Yale and its unions.

GESO 'neutrality agreement' not neutral at all
(The Yale Daily News, 1/15/01)
What on earth does GESO mean by "neutrality at Yale"? GESO petitions circulated in late December supporting a "neutrality agreement" between Yale and the Graduate Employees and Students Organization give clear answers, perhaps not always intentionally.

Penn grad students file for union election
(Yale Daily News, 1/14/02)
A group of graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania began hearings with administrators Friday in response to a petition filed last month requesting a union election.


December 2001

The Trial of Timothy Dwight
Was a Yale president an abolitionist--or slave-owning sell-out?

(New Haven Advocate, 12/27/01)
He blasted slavery around the world. He also purchased a slave. But he said he never intended her to be a slave. But he also intended to keep her in his servitude.
Letter to the Editor: Dwights and Wrongs

The GESO Debate
(Yale Alumni Magazine, December, letters to the editor)
1. You usually do a decent job of reporting on Yale with some objectivity, but the article "States of a Union" was terribly biased...
2. Regarding "States of a Union" and the debate over whether Yale graduate students should be allowed to unionize, I have an opinion based on my brief month or so as a TA for introductory astronomy ...

Yale drafts strike plan as pact deadline nears
(New Haven Register, 12/12/01)
Yale University President Richard C. Levin said Tuesday the university is preparing a labor strike contingency plan, but he said he is optimistic a strike will be avoided. "There's nothing sinister about having a contingency plan," Levin said during a news conference.

University decision-making undemocratic
(Yale Daily News, 12/12/01)

I am a member of GESO for two reasons: because I believe that teachers and researchers need a loud voice to ensure that universities live up to their promise, and because I believe that universities need to engage with the communities that support them in a spirit of partnership and respect rather than one of charity and indifference.

Yale slavery report questioned by experts
Lack of historical context, financial support from unions cited

(Yale Daily News, 12/12/01)

It was August, the slowest month of the year for news, when the controversy broke. A report written by three Yale doctoral candidates and published this summer, entitled "Yale, Slavery and Abolition," alleged that nine of Yale's 12 residential colleges were named for slave owners. And, according to the report, Yale alumni halted plans for what would have been the country's first black college.
LTE: Slavery report's contents, not authors, deserve discussion
LTE:
Slavery report's legitimacy independent of authors' political views
Column: Critics of Yale Slavery report wrong

Taking a closer look at the slavery report
(Yale Daily News, Editorial, 12/12/01)

When three Yale doctoral candidates published "Yale, Slavery and Abolition," a strongly worded essay intended to uncover Yale's sordid and tangled past relationship with slavery, an alarmed campus reacted immediately.

Unions' demand for fairness a legitimate request
(Yale Daily News, 12/12/01)

To the Editor: I appreciate the focus on labor issues at Yale in last week's issues of the Yale Daily News. I graduated during the last period of labor unrest on campus and felt as though I was forced in a very real way to choose between communities that I felt connect The more I thought about it, though, the less hopeful I became.

Brown grad student union election ballots impounded
(Yale Daily News, 12/12/01)

The ballots from last week's graduate student union election at Brown have been impounded and will not be counted until at least next week, Brown and union officials said.

Workers at Yale-New Haven losing out, need a union
(Yale Daily News, 12/7/01)
A few years ago, my co-workers and I began talking quietly about forming a union at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Today we are close to turning those first tentative discussions into reality by joining the New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199, which is affiliated with the Federation of Hospital and University Employees at Yale.

Time for a new era in Yale labor relations
(Yale Daily News, Editorial, 12/7/01)

For more than 50 years, Yale and its unions have been unable to transcend the inherent tension between a rich world-class institution and many of its less privileged middle-class employees. The University's poor labor relations have become legendary, often resulting in strikes and bitter disputes that have distracted from the mission of higher education and hurt the workers who help Yale carry out that mission each day.

University prepares for potential strike
(Yale Daily News, 12/7/01)

Despite talk of improving Yale's historically troubled relationship with its unions, University officials have started to develop contingency plans for maintaining essential services during any labor unrest.

Labor issues to top Corporation's agenda
(Yale Daily News, 12/7/01)

With the expiration of major union contracts in January, this weekend's Yale Corporation meeting is likely to center on discussion of labor negotiations in addition to routine meeting proceedings.

Labor talks creep up on University
(Yale Daily News, 12/7/01) Fifth in Series

A look around campus today offers few clues to the impending contract negotiations between Yale and its unions. Missing are overt signs of the beginning of a process that has historically divided the campus, often forcing students to consider whether they would cross picket lines to enter dining halls.

Levin's next trophy? Why Yale is in marriage therapy
(New Haven Advocate, 12/6/01)
Rick Levin sounded a lot like John Wilhelm last week.

Grad student unions challenge academia
(Yale Daily News, 12/6/01) Fourth in Series
Ever since she helped found GESO, Eve Weinbaum '84 GRD '97 dreamed of being on a campus with a union for graduate students. She finally ended up on such a campus -- as management.

Leader has left his mark on Yale unions
(Yale Daily News, 12/5/01) Third in Series
John Wilhelm '67 was a year and a half out of college and working as a community organizer in the Hill neighborhood when he saw the ad in the New Haven Register. "Labor leader trainee wanted. Long hours. Low pay. Must be single. Box F," the ad read.

Union roots run deep in Elm City
(Yale Daily News, 12/4/01) Second in Series
After less than a month in New Haven, consultant John Stepp could already feel the powerful links between Yale's unions and the city. "The extent to which these unions have organized in this community, I don't think I've seen the likes of," Stepp said.

Yale, unions dig in as negotiations approach
(Yale Daily News, 12/4/01) First in Series
This winter, Yale and its unions will start negotiations for new contracts, beginning a process that could lead to high tensions and crippling strikes -- or unprecedented labor peace.

Speaking up for Unions
(Yale Alumni Magazine, November, Letter to the Editor, by Craig Becker)
I was disturbed to read Law School dean Anthony Kronman's piece, "Are Graduate Students Workers?", in the May 19, 2001 edition of The New York Times.


November 2001

NLRB rules that Brown TAs can form union
(Yale Daily News, 11/26/01)
In a case closely watched by universities and unions across the country, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Nov. 16 that teaching assistants at Brown University are employees eligible to form a union.

Dwight Hall plaque will not placate
(New Haven Register, 11/25/01)
Keeping Dwight Dwight is understandable when considering the rationale of Yale students at Dwight Hall. To change the name because its namesake, Timothy Dwight, was not just a Yale president but, according to all accounts, a defender of slavery, a trainer of pro-slavery theologians, and a slave owner to boot would lead to such undesirable repercussions as É The Black Domino Theory.

Levin optimistic about labor talks
(Yale Daily News, 11/16/01)
Outlining his visions for a new tone in the oft-acrimonious relationship between the University and its unions, University President Richard Levin offered his first official statement Thursday for what he and union officials hope could become a watershed year for labor relations at Yale.

Dwight Hall plaque an unnecessary response
(Yale Daily News Editorial, 11/13/01)
For a social justice organization like Dwight Hall, the revelation that its namesake, former Yale President Timothy Dwight, was a supporter of slavery poses an understandable challenge.

Dwight Hall still making amends
(Yale Daily News, 11/12/01)
After a unanimous decision by the Dwight Hall Cabinet more than two weeks ago to keep its name, Dwight Hall took a step Friday to close wounds left by slavery.

GESO urges Yale to play active role in defending student visas
(Yale Daily News, 11/12/01)
As lawmakers debate proposals to limit student visas and accelerate the creation of a national database to track international students, GESO condemned such proposals and called on University officials to take an active role in defending the rights of international students.

Yalies reject activists' call
(New Haven Register, 11/10/01)
Yale students at Dwight Hall distanced themselves from their pro-slavery namesake Friday by unveiling a plaque that denounces his connection to the slave trade in America.

New VP of finance faces tough road
(Yale Daily News, 11/9/01)
Even with his experience in conducting labor negotiations and in leading universities through fiscal unrest, Culver faces the daunting task of steering Yale through the economic fallout of Sept. 11 and through delicate labor negotiations.

The Anti-Labor Dept.
(New Haven Advocate, 11/8/01)

President Bush's "Labor" Department has helped Yale-New Haven Hospital fight a blue-collar unionizing drive by honoring the management's treatment of workers.

Law students to watch hospital labor practices
(Yale Daily News, 11/2/01)

A group representing nearly 50 law students and professors said it plans to monitor labor practices at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Labor Council, health workers back DeStefano
(New Haven Register, 11/2/01)
The board of the Connecticut Labor Council has unanimously endorsed Mayor John DeStefano Jr.'s candidacy for a fifth term, along with New England Healthcare Workers Local 1199.

Riccio reelected to union office
(Yale Daily News, 11/1/01)
Members of Local 35, which represents Yale's service and maintenance workers, reelected Chief Steward Meg Riccio to her fourth two-year term in a Halloween election.

NLRB dismisses two GESO charges
(Yale Daily News, 11/1/01)
The National Labor Relations Board Wednesday dismissed two unfair labor practice charges filed against the University by GESO last December. GESO chairman J.T. Way GRD '05 said the group would appeal the decision.


October 2001

Unions officially announce endorsement of DeStefano
(Yale Daily News, 10/31/01)
The Greater New Haven Central Labor Council offically announced its endorsement of Mayor John DeStefano Jr. Tuesday at a press conference in front of City Hall.

States of a Union
(Yale Alumni Magazine, October, 2001)
In 1991, a group of graduate teaching assistants formed the Graduate Employees and Students Organization. But after a decade of activism, GESO has yet to achieve University, or federal, recognition as a union. What's up?

Union faces national membership crunch
(Yale Daily News, 10/30/01)
The parent union of Yale's two recognized labor groups has faced financial cutbacks and layoffs of more than a third of its membership because of a decline in tourism since Sept. 11. But leaders of locals 34 and 35 said they would not be affected financially.

Yale, unions call in consultants
(Yale Daily News, 10/29/01)
With union contracts expiring in less than three months, University and labor leaders plan to put off formal negotiations until at least December. Instead they will begin meeting with consultants this week in the hope of finding a more amicable approach to what traditionally has been a divisive negotiation process.

Lee's spot on alumni ballot nearly certain
(Yale Daily News, 10/25/01)
The Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 -- local pastor, activist and Yale Corporation hopeful -- has all but secured a spot on the next Corporation ballot, Association of Yale Alumni Executive Director Jeffrey Brenzel said.

Schiavone uses biotech report to attack mayor
(Yale Daily News, 10/22/01)
Wielding a new report by a local think-tank with close ties to Yale organized labor, Republican mayoral challenger Joel Schiavone '58 has accused the University administration and current Mayor John DeStefano Jr. of failing to turn the city's investment in biotechnology into the widespread economic blessing it was made out to be.

Labor Council endorses mayor
(Yale Daily News, 10/19/01)
Earlier this fall, with potentially divisive negotiations between Yale and its unions looming, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. welcomed an endorsement from the Greater New Haven Central Labor Council.

Lee's supporters fail to understand Yale Corp.
(Yale Daily News, 10/18/01)
As the former secretary of the University and advisor to three Yale presidents, I worked with the Yale Corporation for over two decades. I would like to make three points. First, Alieta-Marie Levesque and Sam Asher '04 are wrong about the make-up of the Yale Corporation. Second, they, and others, have an incorrect view of trusteeship. And third, Lee portrays himself in different ways in different places.

Responsive trustee missing on Yale Corp.
(Yale Daily News, 10/16/01)
In all of the discussion surrounding Corporation candidate Rev. W. David Lee, we are missing the most important point. The focus of this debate should be how to make Yale better -- not richer, more reputable, or more expedient. Those are all good things, but Yale as a leader in academia needs to think about its responsibilities in broader terms.

Lee's 'interests' sorely needed on Yale Corp.
(Yale Daily News, Letter to the Editor, 10/16/01)
In its own backyard, the vigor of youth and the ability to empathize with the average worker is not seen as adding diversity to a group consisting mostly of elder, rich, corporate leaders. Commitment to community and dedication to its issues and citizenry are not seen as signs of accomplishment and renown.

Yale urged to help schools
(New Haven Register, 10/16/01)
A new report from a community advocacy organization recommends that Yale University make "substantial payments" to improve the city's schools so students can benefit from the city's biotech boom.

Lee's bid for Corporation seat flawed
(Yale Daily News, Editorial, 10/10/01)
At first it seems like a great idea. A local pastor and community leader, backed by a coalition of students, local citizens and even the mayor, offers to strengthen the bond between Yale and New Haven by vying for a seat on the Yale Corporation.

Labor leader says U.S. workers hit hard
(New Haven Register, 10/7/01)
John Wilhelm, who led a successful organizing drive for Yale University clerical and technical workers in the 1980s, says his natural optimism is being challenged by the deaths of 43 of his current union's workers at the World Trade Center.

'Counter-Tercentennial' draws big crowd
(New Haven Register, 10/6/01)
A "counter-Tercentennial" at twilight Friday drew a couple thousand Yale union members to a park within shouting distance of the official festivities at Yale Bowl.

Yale Corporation at 300: town or gown?
(Yale Herald, 10/5/01)
Rev. W. David Lee, DIV '93, wants in. Not for himself, but for his community. He wants in to the Yale Corporation, which he dubs "a good old boy network."

Rev. Lee running in wrong race
(Yale Daily News, 10/4/01)
The Rev. W. David Lee's DIV '93 recent bid for an alumni seat on the Yale Corporation shows a clear disregard for the responsibilities of that office.

Lee bid means true Tercentennial democracy
By Ted Wittenstein, BK '04
(Yale Daily News, 10/3/01)

Gazing across the table at the nearly 4,700 alumni signatures supporting Lee's candidacy for the Yale Corporation, I began to realize the significance of Lee's virtually guaranteed spot on the ballot for Yale's most powerful policy-making body.

Lee Obtains Signatures for Ballot
(Yale Daily News, 10/2/01)
The Rev. W. David Lee DIV '93 marched triumphantly into Rose Alumni House Monday with six boxes of signed petitions and a chance at landing a seat on Yale's highest policy-making body.

Pastor takes long road for seat on Yale Corporation
(New Haven Register, 9/23/01)
In a bid to "empower the community," the Rev. W. David Lee is gathering Yale alumni signatures to try to get on the ballot for election to the powerful Yale Corporation.

Levin and Proto: Battell hug may be first step towards peaceful labor relations
(Yale Daily News, 10/2/01)
The tone of Yale's longstanding labor-management conflict might be changing. Bob Proto -- the president of Local 35, a union set to enter contract negotiations with the University later this fall -- called for new "cooperation and unity" at a memorial service for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.


September 2001

A controversial report fuels demands that the University address its tainted past
(Yale Herald, 9/22/01)
Less than a rally but more than a lecture, the Fri., Sept. 7, town meeting entitled "Yale, Slavery, and Abolition: The Impact on Education Then and Now" was a first step, a feeling-out. A first step for a group of New HavenitesÑ grad students, local clergy, political activists, unionized workersÑwho feel compelled to make Yale take its own steps toward reparations.

1-Day Job Is Fatal
(New York Daily News, 9/13/01)
Union leader Juan Colon's voice was breaking as he started to read the names of those still missing. The scene was the headquarters of Local 100 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union. In front of Colon sat 80 stunned men and women Ñ all that was left of the unionized workforce at Windows on the World.

Union strife looms over the horizon
(Yale Daily News, 9/11/01)
Nothing appears out of the ordinary for a late summer day in the heart of the Elm City. But summer is quickly cascading into fall, and, by January, life at Yale may not be on such an even keel. In fact, it could become downright ugly.

City residents demand Yale pay reparations
(Yale Daily News, 9/10/01)
New Haven residents gathered at the Center Church on the Green Friday night to commemorate the 170th anniversary of attempts to form a black college and to draw continued attention to Yale's involvement with slavery. Clergy and community activists demanded reparations from the University.

City's oldest church offers apologies to blacks
(New Haven Register, front page, 9/8/01)
The oldest religious congregation in New Haven on Friday reached out to an equally historic church with common ancestry in an effort to heal a wound of nearly two centuries. The United Church of Christ at Center Church on the Green, was the site of a town meeting ...

Critical Year Ahead for Graduate Student Unions
(Yale Daily News, 9/6/01)
After more than a decade of conflict and drama, the debate over a potential union for teaching assistants at Yale comes to yet another flash point this year.

Five myths about unionization
(Yale Daily News, 9/5/01)
By Jacob Remes
Ask anyone, from your TA to your master's assistant, from your dining hall swiper to Yale President Richard Levin, this academic year is going to be a big year for unions.

GESO may struggle but not for democracy
(Yale Daily News, 9/6/01)
While freshmen attempt to learn the nuances of Yale's often complicated lexicon, they will rapidly learn that "democracy" is one of the most overused words on this campus.

Service workers stuck in low-pay, lousy jobs
(Appearing in New Haven Register, 9/3/01)
By John Wilhelm
This Labor Day, we need to recognize that our nation is moving inexorably toward a service economy. But while a handful of people in this sector are highly paid, many service workers are stuck in jobs with low wages, lousy benefits and high turnover.


Click here for articles appearing in or before August 2001

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