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Calling on the University to open up its governance process, Harvard Watch will kick off today a petition effort that will culminate in a visit by activist Ralph Nader later this month...
Still, Americans find it difficult to sympathize with public officials whose income is already five times the national average. Moreover, Consumer Activist Ralph Nader points out that Congress pocketed an automatic pay increase of $2,500 on Jan. 1; in the last session, the members voted themselves a $3,000 tax deduction on housing costs. So how do politicians find a politic way of giving themselves a raise? Under a law passed in 1985, if Congress simply does nothing, the new pay scale will automatically take effect on Feb. 5, a month after it was presented to the legislature...
...proposed raises, argued the commission, will reverse a 17-year, 41% decline in federal employees' purchasing power and make Government service more attractive. Reagan is expected to scale down the upper pay levels to around $100,000 before sending them on to Congress. Grumbled Consumer Activist Ralph Nader: "Nothing is so absurd as the assertion that these officials can't get by on pay and benefits equal to five times the income of the average American worker...
These are also problems, of course, at other campuses around the country. It would be wrong, though, to think that Nader is picking on Harvard by focusing his efforts in Cambridge. The media coverage of the 350th birthday celebration in September demonstrated that events at Harvard command attention in the public eye. If Nader can acomplish some good at Harvard, odds are his efforts will pay off elsewhere, as well...
Unfortunately, Harvard Watch only has a staff of one, an undergraduate who is taking this year off to participate in the project. So we don't expect anytime soon to see the Harvard Corporation topple or the walls of 17 Quincy Street come a tumblin' down. But Ralph Nader's presence can only hasten the coming of the day when major decisions regarding the Harvard community are no longer made solely by seven white males cloistered alone in a room, removed from those most affected by their deliberations. For that reason alone, we welcome...