Charges of HDS Racism Draw Managers' Reply

Two student leaders of the Harvard-Radcliffe Labor Alliance (HRLA) yesterday said they were "disappointed" by a meeting with Diane B. Patrick, director of Harvard's Office of Human Resources, and Thomas E. Vautin, the University's director of facilities management.

The students presented Patrick and Vautin with a list of demands relating to employment issues throughout the University and a 500-signature petition requesting a University-wide policy of "not accepting bids from substandard contractors," according to Joshua L. Oppenheimer '96.

Oppenheimer and Logan S. McCarty '96, though, said the administrators seemed uninterested in their requests.

"The whole meeting, I thought, was unnecessarily antagonistic," McCarty said. "Their arguments were unnecessarily dismissive."

But Patrick said she and Vautin were receptive to the students concerns.

"I thought we had a good dialogue on a variety of issues," Patrick said. "We spent a good hour talking to them and listening to their concerns and I would not think anything we said would reflect that we dismissed them rapidly and weren't sensitive to concerns that they expressed."

Among the HRLA demands was a request that the University retract the recent dismissal of a Harvard Dining Services employee who was fired just over three months after he filed state and federal complaints allegeing racial discrimination at the Freshman Union dining hall (see related story).

The students also demanded a "full-scale investigation" into alleged "unfair labor practices" at the Union and other University dining halls. The list of demands said the practices include "unnecessarily harsh" and "excessive" verbal and written discipline of workers and discriminatory promotion practices based on race and nationality.

Patrick said she did not discuss the dining hall issue with the students because she believes it stems from the specific situation of the former employee.

"The focus of their concern there seems to be on Darryl Hicks [the fired worker] and his employment relationship and that is an issue which neither I nor anybody else will be willing to discuss in a public forum," Patrick said. "Those matters are confidential."

But McCarty disagreed. "The main issue we were looking at in the Freshman Dining Hall was our experience, talking to employees and eating there, that there has been a breakdown in labor-management relations," McCarty said. "The issue is a pattern of discrimination, of people being treated unfairly, of people being discriminated [against] wrongly."

The students also urged Harvard to adopt a "Fair Employer Policy," to be set up by an elected committee of workers and faculty members. According to the demands, the policy should standardize contractor bidding procedures, promote worker participation in management decisions and include health insurance for the domestic partners of employees.

In addition, the students asked that the University promise to refrain from launching "anti-union campaigns."

"[Harvard is] really the model for higher education throughout the country and given that elite position, we have an obligation to be socially responsible," Oppenheimer said.

Patrick said the students' demands would be considered.

"We did not leave the meeting with a plan of action," Patrick said. "But obviously their concerns will be discussed and raised with the appropriate groups of people."

The students said they are also seeking a meeting with Harvard Vice President for Administration Sally H. Zeckhauser. And they said they would continue to fight for a response to the demands.

"Right now, we're just looking for interest," Oppenheimer said. "We'll try to rally as much support among students as we can for the demands.

But Patrick said she and Vautin were receptive to the students concerns.

"I thought we had a good dialogue on a variety of issues," Patrick said. "We spent a good hour talking to them and listening to their concerns and I would not think anything we said would reflect that we dismissed them rapidly and weren't sensitive to concerns that they expressed."

Among the HRLA demands was a request that the University retract the recent dismissal of a Harvard Dining Services employee who was fired just over three months after he filed state and federal complaints allegeing racial discrimination at the Freshman Union dining hall (see related story).

The students also demanded a "full-scale investigation" into alleged "unfair labor practices" at the Union and other University dining halls. The list of demands said the practices include "unnecessarily harsh" and "excessive" verbal and written discipline of workers and discriminatory promotion practices based on race and nationality.

Patrick said she did not discuss the dining hall issue with the students because she believes it stems from the specific situation of the former employee.

"The focus of their concern there seems to be on Darryl Hicks [the fired worker] and his employment relationship and that is an issue which neither I nor anybody else will be willing to discuss in a public forum," Patrick said. "Those matters are confidential."

But McCarty disagreed. "The main issue we were looking at in the Freshman Dining Hall was our experience, talking to employees and eating there, that there has been a breakdown in labor-management relations," McCarty said. "The issue is a pattern of discrimination, of people being treated unfairly, of people being discriminated [against] wrongly."

The students also urged Harvard to adopt a "Fair Employer Policy," to be set up by an elected committee of workers and faculty members. According to the demands, the policy should standardize contractor bidding procedures, promote worker participation in management decisions and include health insurance for the domestic partners of employees.

In addition, the students asked that the University promise to refrain from launching "anti-union campaigns."

"[Harvard is] really the model for higher education throughout the country and given that elite position, we have an obligation to be socially responsible," Oppenheimer said.

Patrick said the students' demands would be considered.

"We did not leave the meeting with a plan of action," Patrick said. "But obviously their concerns will be discussed and raised with the appropriate groups of people."

The students said they are also seeking a meeting with Harvard Vice President for Administration Sally H. Zeckhauser. And they said they would continue to fight for a response to the demands.

"Right now, we're just looking for interest," Oppenheimer said. "We'll try to rally as much support among students as we can for the demands.