A Chat After Tea

Ninety minutes of debate were not enough for a few Faculty members at last Tuesday's Faculty meeting. Following the defeat of the two major sections of the Cavell motion--which would have extended the Staff Tuition Scholarship (STS) program and the present need criteria for one year--exiting Faculty stopped outside University Hall to give picketing Graduate Student Union members an impromptu lecture on the current financial situation.

Not to be outdone, Union members had a few words to say in return. Linking arms to prevent the Faculty from leaving, the graduate students tried to read a Union statement they had composed as they listened to the motion's defeat over WHRB.

Prior to this rational discourse, Everett I. Mendelsohn, professor of the History of Science and cosponsor of the graduate aid motion, told the Faculty the problem of graduate education went beyond a "budgetary perspective."

"These are our intellectual sons and daughters," Mendelsohn said. "This cannot be translated into dollar value."

The defeat of the Cavell motion means that the new tuition abatement program will be conducted under a need criteria that has yet to be worked out, and that the University will not guarantee support to non-teaching fellows who have lost outside aid.

The Union statement released Tuesday night called the Faculty "callous," and said the motion's defeat showed the "limitations of working with the existing structure of the University." Mahmood Mandami, spokesman for the Union, said "The Faculty has refused to do even the minimal: our struggle continues, but now we're on our own."