The Chronicle of Higher Education
Date: July 5, 1996
Section: Personal & Professional
Page: A14
By Mary Crystal Cage
The Modern Language Association approved a resolution last month censuring Yale University for its treatment of teaching assistants who have tried to organize a union.
Usually, M.L.A. resolutions are adopted with at least 90 per cent of the vote, but the Yale measure passed by a narrower margin. The M.L.A. said that 3,828 members had voted Yes, 2,474 had voted No, and 836 had abstained. The association counts abstentions as no votes.
Supporters of the censure said Yale had encouraged professors to punish graduate students for participating in union protests. For example, they said, some Yale professors have refused to write letters of recommendation for students who were union organizers.
The M.L.A. vote came as good news to Robin Brown, chairwoman of the Yale students' group, the Graduate Employees and Students Organization. "It will give some people pause when it comes time to decide whether they want to threaten someone in the future," she said.
Yale officials dismissed the resolution, saying the university had not sought to punish graduate students for supporting the union. "The premise of the resolution is misinformation, so it's not at all surprising that it passed," said Tom Conroy, a Yale spokesman.
He said some graduate students had been disciplined for failing to turn in grades for undergraduates during a grade strike organized by the union in January. "The motivation for that failure is, and ought to be, irrelevant," he said.