By Lucy Caplan and Ian Kumekawa

As the economy continues to lose ground, it is becoming increasingly apparent that Harvard is not an ivory tower immune from the pressures of the market, and that the world’s largest university endowment provides only a limited amount of cushioning. As labor relations become increasingly turbid, unions and students alike search for effective and appropriate responses.

After it became common knowledge that Harvard’s endowment had taken an $8 million hit, the Crimson wrote an editorial which sought to put the situation in perspective. The article opened with: “Northeastern isn’t building a new dorm after all. MIT is slashing 10 to 15 percent of its spending. At Harvard, President Drew G. Faust wrote a letter.”

That letter, of November 10th, did much to assuage fears that the economic downturn would have a drastic effect on the quality of life on campus. The announcement stressed New England Husbandry rather than cutbacks. But times have changed at Harvard. With many departments being asked to cut 10-15% of their budgets none are naive enough to think that life at Harvard will go on unchanged at any level. Indeed, in the past two weeks, as universities like Johns Hopkins and Emory have announced substantial layoffs, Harvard has announced the layoff of fifty money managers. However, few would deny that labor has been put in an increasingly vulnerable position.

That some of the positions at Harvard may be in jeopardy of elimination is a legitimate source of worry. As the rhetoric constantly reminds us, what makes Harvard distinct and itself is neither the Neo-Georgian architecture nor the healthy endowment, but indeed the people. The university has a commitment to all of the members of its community, not just students and tenured professors.

The State of Labor Relations at Harvard

The fourth-largest employer in Massachusetts, Harvard counts over fifteen thousand people among its employees. Within this group, more than 4800 workers are members of the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW), an independent union affiliated with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a national organization. HUCTW, which was founded in 1988, is notable in that it began as a self-organized union, not as a subset of a larger group. Staying true to this principle of self-organization, HUCTW members represent the union themselves in negotiations with Harvard instead of using outside lawyers or representatives. Rather than relying on the traditional model of filing grievances, HUCTW follows a more collaborative “problem-solving” approach.

HUCTW has been an active voice in addressing current economic concerns and their potential implications for workers. Over the past few months, HUCTW has published a series of three open letters on the economy. The first, published December 2, responds mainly to Drew Faust’s university-wide letter about the news about the declining value of the endowment. HUCTW acknowledges the uncertainty of the economic climate and of what Harvard’s response will need to be, but states clearly that “At the school level, the HUTCW message is that where spending needs to be reduced, we should look first at consulting, travel and catering budgets…cuts in labor costs – by reducing staffing or any other means – should be a last resort.” The two subsequent open letters, published on December 22 and February 9, echo this sentiment, emphasizing that layoffs should be Harvard’s last choice for budget cuts.

HUCTW also suggests a postponement of major capital projects as a means of reducing costs. Specifically, the open letters urge the university to delay development in Allston. Harvard’s current position on Allston appears to have mixed intentions. On December 26, 2008, the university purchased a parcel of land in Allston from the Brookline Machine Company at a price of nearly two million dollars. The timing of this decision raised a considerable concern within the Harvard community, and was augmented by the fact that the property does not have any immediate use.

Conversely, however, Harvard has indicated in more vague terms that it will slow development in Allston as a response to the economic climate. In her February 18 letter to the community, President Faust wrote that construction on the new science complex will move at a slower pace. She also stated that “although long-term planning for other Allston development will continue, it will occur at a slower pace and our broader plans for developing the Allston campus are delayed.” Delays in Allston, of course, present a whole range of potential problems in terms of how they will affect residents. (See “Allston: The State of Play in 2009″)

Finally, HUCTW’s open letters call for more transparency in how much and what information Harvard makes available to the union and the public. The first open letter states, “Perhaps the most important push from HUCTW will be for more transparency and collaboration in financial decision-making at all levels of the University.” In order for unions and workers to negotiate effectively, it is vitally important that the university provide them with adequate information. Other members of the university community, from faculty to students to neighbors, also need sufficient information if they are to understand Harvard’s financial choices.

A Need for Greater Transparency

A lack of financial transparency is not unique to Harvard. In fact, virtually all colleges suffer from a lack of transparency, especially with respect to endowments. February’s Responsible Endowment Conference, a two-day event co-hosted by SLAM and Yale’s Responsible Endowment Project, highlighted the fact that Harvard, like most of its peer institution, provides little transparency with respect to investments of endowment funds.

Though widespread layoffs have not become a reality thus far, the threat of layoffs is very real to many Harvard workers. Certain changes in the Harvard workplace violate the terms of union agreements. Harvard College Libraries earlier this year announced that it would discontinue “reclassifications” – its term for promotions – because of the hiring freeze. Given that the particular requirements of a job can still change, however, this discontinuation is unfair to workers. It ignores the terms of the HUCTW Agreement, which states that, “Whenever there have been substantive, measurable changes in a job’s content and responsibilities, a reclassification review should be initiated.”

Additionally, HUCTW representative Geoff Carens wrote to Perspective in an email that “Clerical workers continue to receive communications from management, many of which hint strongly about the prospect of layoffs.” A letter distributed to Harvard College Library staff on January 20, for example, states, “For every type of budget reduction that might be proposed, there are people affected in some measure.” The same letter later states, “We must rethink what it will take to balance [our] priorities with fewer dollars, and therefore, with fewer people.” Carens accurately described these letters as “ominous” in their language. While such assertions do not refer to layoffs by name, they are certainly a legitimate cause for concern among workers.

The Student Response

In a cramped basement room in Phillips Brooks House on a recent Monday night, nearly twenty members of the Student Labor Action Movement assembled for their weekly meeting. The discussion centered mainly around the group’s No-Layoffs Campaign, facilitated in large part by updates from two union reps and a quorum of students who had just returned from posing questions to President Faust at a recent UC-sponsored event.

The Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) was founded in 2005 largely as an effort to support janitors on campus, many of whom had wages below $7 per hour. Through a variety of efforts including two massive protests, SLAM was able to help win the janitors a $5 wage increase over 5 years as well as improved benefits. Over the next two years, SLAM would shift its support behind Harvard’s security workers who eventually, after both protests and a hunger strike which received international press, were able to form a union and negotiate an acceptable contract with their employer, AlliedBarton.

But back in the basement of PBH, the mood reflected the grim realities of the present, not the successes of the past. Why, it was asked, were extravagant university-sponsored events like the Freshman Formal still going forward while workers faced legitimate fear over job security?

As Geoff Carens, representative for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW), and Ed Childs, chief steward of UNITE HERE 26 both related recent developments including layoffs, policy changes, and cases of discrimination, the atmosphere became increasingly serious.

SLAM leader Alyssa Aguilera says that the organization’s plan is to “talk to workers and do our best to stand in solidarity with them. As students we understand that we have a privileged position within the university and hope to use that position to put pressure on our administration to resist layoffs.”

Indeed, in December the movement submitted a letter to President Faust cautioning the administration against laying off employees. Additionally, the group is seeking to recruit students for a union-organized protest in early March.

SLAM is well-placed to play an important role on campus, and given the economic state of affairs, its existence is becoming increasingly important and relevant. The organization is perhaps the most obvious link between students and workers on campus and as such has the potential to essentially set the tone of the dialogue between those two groups.

The movement already functions as a voice box for the labor community within the student body. The general meeting of the Harvard College Democrats on February 3 saw SLAM members including Aguilera present alongside with union representatives to the assembled Democrats, spreading the news of layoffs and urging solidarity within the Harvard community.

At the meeting, amid a generally supportive atmosphere, SLAM members urged students to use Obama as a rallying point for a fight against layoffs and intolerance. They pushed for organizations like the Democrats take a more concrete role in drafting the policy that will characterize the student input on determining how budget cuts will go forward. SLAM members met with BGLTSA just days later.

SLAM seems to understand the value of facilitating understanding, and more generally speaking, just spreading the word about the state of labor relations at Harvard. Through increased transparency, there will inevitably be a greater understanding and appreciation of labor at the university. This, in turn, may well be instrumental in sowing the seeds of activism, especially within the undergraduate community.

The Case of Helen Boos

Against the backdrop of extensive budget cuts and a growing tide of layoffs, the case of Helen Boos has attracted attention and launched an outcry from both unions and student activists.

SLAM and Harvard Unions claim that Ms. Boos, who worked in the Loeb Design Library, was unfairly fired in the middle of last month. In response, the organizations have motivated Harvard employees, students, and alumni to send emails of protest to the university’s director of labor relations, Bill Murphy.

Ms. Boos was hired and began work at the Design Library just before the institution of the general hiring freeze. As the proposed 10% budget cuts were unveiled, HUCTW claims that Ms. Boos’ supervisor became “extremely critical” of her work, and her training became “haphazard and limited.”

By contract, either Harvard employee or supervisor can terminate the relationship within a first three-month probationary period. However, according to HUCTW, management did not provide the “regular and effective communication” that is intended and expected to ensure success of new hires.

During the approximately two months that Ms. Boos was in Harvard’s employ, the Thanksgiving and Midwinter Holiday breaks took place. Additionally, Ms. Boos’ supervisor took an extra three-week vacation. Upon termination, Harvard immediately cut off Ms. Boos’ health benefits without even notifying her, despite the fact that her supervisor and others at the School of Design knew that she had upcoming medical appointments.

The case of Helen Boos has raised significant questions about the transparency with which Harvard is dealing with its increasingly comprehensive cutbacks, and more generally about the way Harvard comports itself as an employer.

By Thomas Chen, Princeton ‘09

At a gathering of 2000 Asian American leaders and activists in May, Obama personally phoned in to declare, “I am a Pacific Islander…I consider myself one of you,” placating many who still harbored resentments that Obama neglected to mention “Asians” in some of his stump speeches stressing racial unity. After Obama’s historic victory, blogs and forums of the Asian American community were abuzz with excitement. The San Francisco Chronicle published an article trumpeting Obama as the first “Asian American” president, and AsianWeek, a San Francisco-based newspaper serving the Asian/Pacific Islander American community, speculated about the prospect of the first real Asian American president in the near future. Inspired by Obama’s multi-racial background, childhood story, and his message of change, this year’s election has witnessed both increased political activism and support for the Democratic ticket among Asian Americans.

According to the Census Bureau, Asian Americans are defined as individuals with family origins from the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent, ranging from recent Pakistani immigrants to former South Vietnamese refugees. With a small population—slightly over two percent of the U.S. voting population—the Asian American community’s diverse nature prevents it from forming one cohesive voting bloc.

However, many Asian Americans have recently left traditionally overrepresented states such as California and Hawaii and settled in battleground counties such as Fairfax County in Virginia and Clark County in Nevada. Asian Americans account for more than five percent of the population of Virginia and Nevada. Nationally, they are the fastest growing ethnic group, ballooning from a population of one million in 1960 to 15 million today.

Asian Americans have already made significant strides in flexing their collective political muscle. In the 2006 Senate election in Virginia, infuriated by incumbent Senator George Allen’s offensive “macaca” remark, Asian Americans’ votes may have tipped the control of the Senate to the Democrats; the race was decided by a razor-thin 9,329 votes. Exit polls conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund showed that Asian Americans voted 76% to 21% for Allen’s opponent, Jim Webb. Numbering 160,000 and determined to hold the incumbent senator accountable, Virginia’s Asian American electorate helped decide that contentious race.

In 2008, political commentators concluded that both presidential tickets should focus on Asian Americans in battleground states such as Virginia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania where their votes could be the deciding factor for either party. When all the dust settled on November 4, final exit polls tallied that Obama won the Asian Americans vote 62% to 35%, compared to a 67% to 31% margin among Hispanics, and 90% to 10% among African Americans.
While Asian support for Obama falls short of the levels of other racial minorities, it is nonetheless a striking turn of events, as Asian Americans were once reliable Republican voters. In 1992, George H.W. Bush claimed 62% of Asian American votes while he garnered only 38% of the popular vote. Political scientists agree that the reason for this shift is that for decades, the Asian American voting bloc consisted largely of Vietnamese, Korean, and Chinese immigrants who fled communist regimes and thus favored candidates with a strong anti-communist stance.

In recent elections, Asian Americans have generally voted Democratic. The 2000 presidential election marked the first time that a majority of Asian Americans voted for a Democrat, and in 2004, George W. Bush lost the Asian American vote to John Kerry 56% to 44%. The Republican Party’s loss of support could be attributed to a change in the community’s religious makeup, with a marked decrease in the Christian population, reflecting recent immigrant composition. Moreover, Republican California Governor Pete Wilson’s anti-immigration initiatives alienated the more educated and politically engaged Asian Californian immigrants of the 1990s.

This pro-Democratic trend was accelerated after September 11th. According to Karthick Ramakrishnan, a co-author of the National Asian American Survey (NAAS), South Asian immigrants moved to abandon the GOP due to “discrimination they’ve experienced after the attacks.” Previously an anti-communist voting bloc, the community became a bastion of pro-immigration supporters.

During the 2006 midterm elections, Republicans faced formidable challenges courting Asian American votes. The Iraq War and the Republican Party’s anti-immigration rhetoric during the campaign season alienated Asian American voters. These factors pushed Asian Americans to vote 2-to-1 in favor of Democratic candidates. In the 2008 election, the 1.5 generation—Asian American immigrants’ children who make up the second most pro-Democrat group after young African Americans—played a crucial role in helping Obama secure his win over McCain.
Despite Asian Americans leaning Democratic over the past decade, Obama initially did not enjoy their firm support. On Super Tuesday, Obama lost to Hillary Clinton by a consistently large margin in exit polls of every state. In California, where Asian Americans make up 8% of the voting bloc, they voted 3-to-1 for Clinton. In New Jersey, the margin was also 3-to-1 and in New York—Clinton’s home state—almost 9-to-1.

Shortly thereafter, in a Time Magazine article entitled, “Does Obama Have an Asian Problem?,” Oliver Wang, a professor of sociology at California State University at Long Beach, suggested that “the image of African Americans…is not often positive” among Asian Americans. Prominent Asian politicians also endorsed Clinton during the primaries, including Governor Gary Locke of Washington and more surprisingly, Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii – Obama’s home state.

Many analysts believed that Asian Americans initially favored Clinton simply based on her name recognition within their community and home countries. However, by May, polls in California found that support for Obama already trumped Clinton’s: 56% to 33%. While Obama’s message was slowly gaining traction, the NAAS survey found that a quarter of Clinton’s supporters and a third of all Asian Americans remained undecided voters by October.
Many Asian Americans did not immediately support Obama as they were unsure of the meaning of his message of “change.” Initial support for Obama mainly stemmed from his anti-Iraq War stance. Results from an NAAS survey found that 70% of voters support a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq “as soon as possible,” which was Obama’s stance during the campaign.

Yet the real shift towards Obama occurred when, according to Professor Wang, Asian Americans began to realize that Obama is a “different kind of African American.” Many of Clinton’s Asian America supporters switched sides once they learned about his diverse background through Asian media outlets: Obama was born and raised in Hawaii by his white Kansan mother and later spent eight years of schooling in Jakarta. His stepfather, Lolo Soetro, was Indonesian. His half Asian sister, Maya Soetro-Ng, married a Chinese Canadian, Conrad Ng, who worked to convince Asian American community leaders that Obama personally understands the issues that are most important to them.

Chris Lu, the Obama transition team’s Executive Director and White House Cabinet Secretary-designate, revealed in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle that all immigrants could identify with Obama’s struggles with his own identity and integration of his values into mainstream America. Obama’s Hawaiian and Indonesian story resonates strongly with Asian Americans from all backgrounds and provides them with a strong personal connection to American politics. As the first Asian American to speak at the Democratic National Convention, Maya Soetro-Ng mentioned that Obama’s presidency would bring a “colorful palette” to the White House. Mike Fonda and John Chiang of California, both prominent Asian American politicians, also highlighted Obama’s multi-cultural experience at the Convention.

Professor Don Nakanishi of UCLA said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle that young Asian Americans formed a core group of strong Obama supporters that helped persuade others in the community to vote for Obama. The 2008 election saw record numbers of Asian American campaign volunteers serving as crucial ground troops for the Get-Out-The-Vote efforts in immigrant communities in California, New York, and Virginia. A survey of Filipino Americans in California—the second largest Asian American ethnic group and traditionally Republican voters—found that aggressive canvassing efforts, mass emails and internet blogging by Filipino youth leaders led to a significant last-minute shift towards Obama, resulting in the group’s first-time voting for a Democratic ticket. Many similar anecdotes about young Thai, Korean, and Chinese Americans convincing their families to vote for a Democratic candidate for the first time appeared on blogs.

The historic nature of this year’s election has finally brought a long neglected voting bloc into the national spotlight. Articles headlined “Asian Americans may Flip Virginia into Obama’s column,” and “Asian Americans Feeling the Power” underscore the Asian American community as an increasingly potent political force, and a “sleeping [electoral] giant” ready to be awakened. Obama seems to have responded to the Asian American electorate by appointing three Asian Americans on his White House transition team, and so far two to his Cabinet. Asian Americans, like African and Latino Americans, can finally rejoice because, for the first time in history, they were a driving force behind the successful election of the President.

Contributing author Thomas Chen originally published this article in Progressive Nation.

By Daniel Villafana

Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

The Harvard Viral Review was founded to aid students in their procrastination. Statistics I have just made up show that 40% of all-nighters are a direct result of viral streaming. We have all put off an assignment because YouTube is only a click away. If precious time is to be inevitably wasted, it is our goal at HVR to help you do it in a productive way.

Viral streaming has also become a popular way of socializing. HRV takes a public stand against Final Clubs. We feel it is possible to decrease Final Club popularity by referring students to quality online entertainment. Every time a group of students stay home on a Saturday night and gather around a computer screen, it warms our hearts and motivates us to continue to write these otherwise useless reviews.

Love,

Daniel

P.S. Last November in search of Two Girls One Cup I came across Two Girls One Ballot. That viral inspired me to go out and vote for our new president. Internet videos are a powerful thing.

John McCain and His Vegetable Friends

Obama’s good looks are really first class; he defeated a superhero in a race to the country’s presidency. John McCain a superhero? Yes. Much in the same way that Aquaman can speak to marine animals, John McCain can speak with vegetables. Agriman! This animated viral is the quickest and perhaps cheapest way to experience a bad trip, if for some reason you would ever want to. The replay value is –(High), that is to say you will replay it several times but not for your enjoyment. You will also find that this video is very useful in getting people to leave your room.

The Front Fell Off

This debate between John Clarke and Bryan Dawe will make you break a cold sweat after two minutes of rib-clutching laughter. No worries, though; it is a satire. The skit is a parody of an interview about an oil tanker accident in which the “front fell off.” Quick summary: 20,000 tons of crude oil spilled into the ocean, but no harm was done because the wreck was quickly towed outside of the environment. Now that green is the new crimson, comedy like this is becoming increasingly popular. This viral is a friendly reminder that people who do not believe in global warming and can tell you with a straight face are CRAZY. The replay value is mild, like a dab of Tabasco deluded with lemon.

The Sheppard Tone

This viral is sound only. What seems to be a tone continually getting lower is in fact a repetition of the same series of pitches. If this technical mumbo-jumbo does not make any sense, here it is in layman’s terms: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Final word, this video is trippin’ balls.

Kittens, Inspired by Kittens

If you need to judge a person’s character, sit them down in front of this viral. If you do not hear an “AAWWWW” out of that person’s mouth within ten seconds after pressing play, you know that you are in the presence of evil. Seriously, if there is a heaven, it consists of an infinite playback of Kittens, Inspired by Kittens. Every time I watch this video I forget that Sinclair’s The Jungle was ever written. Replay value: download it as a .wmv and make it your desktop background.

A Bit of Fry and Laurie – “Mystery Song”

Doesn’t watching a Steven Fry and Hugh Laurie skit make you feel so sophisticated? Laugh with your legs crossed, try it and see, it’s so cool, quite a mystery. Take your laptop, sit under a tree, press play and listen: instant ecstasy.

Hugh Laurie has written a beautiful love song. The piano plays a soothing melody while Laurie’s voice hits notes that many thought were unique to the range of Kermit the Frog. The song unfolds the mystery of Laurie’s love. It starts off very innocently; Laurie is concerned that his lover may live in a different country. Listeners cannot help but cheer him on as he examines his heart under a magnifying glass. In the latter half of the song, however, we discover that in fact his love has died…fifteen years ago, this coming January. Then the tears come, they did for me. If you are not familiar with Fry and Laurie, consider this your gateway drug. Once you watch it and fall in love, watch their Hey Jude and Tricky Linguistics.

GI Joe PSA Ice

Watch this viral. DON’T WATCH THIS VIRAL. This is a parody of the GI Joe cartoon series. Clips are cut from episodes and then dubbed over. I am often told that this is a video only teenage boys will enjoy, and although I am against gender profiling, this is one case where it is true. It is difficult to pinpoint what exactly is funny, but rest assured that it is. If GI Joe tickles your pickle, watch a few of the other clips. If you fail to see the humor then you are a penis pump, pshh. Replay value = 1/0