Making headlines: media watchdogs hound Yale

To look at the headlines, it seems that the media care more than we do. News of the GESO grade strike, much of it gleaned from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, graced the pages of newspapers from Omaha to Orlando.M ore than ivy has covered Yale's ivory tower of late; graffitied accusations appear on the walls, and the media hold the spray can.

Recently, Yale's public image seems to have depended less on the actual developments in its union negotiations and the GESO controversy, and more on the partisan affiliations of the "public" onlookers. Depending on whom you talk to, Yale is either a be nevolent giant who graciously tolerates the demands of the greedy Lilliputians - graduate students and union profiteers - or it is an Oz-like configuration of smoke and mirrors, designed to shield a core of control-freaks who have made a series of tactica l errors. But neither position denies that University action is carefully planned. Publicity prepared for union conflict

Yale spokesperson Gary Fryer said that the Office of Public Affairs (OPA) has anticipated the union confrontation for some time. "I've worked here for two years, and this is the biggest issue we've faced," Fryer said of the union conflict. A former pre ss secretary for Mario Cuomo and the largest public employees' union in New York, Fryer has ample experience in publicity and negotiation to guide his latest maneuverings for the Administration. The OPA began concerted preparations last spring, when the U niversity failed to reach early agreements with the unions or GESO. "We made an effort to understand the facts, and to understand the policy with regard to those facts," Fryer said. "We expanded our research and knowledge through the efforts of people wit h expertise. We worked closely with the grad school to understand the students' position. Then we examined how best to articulate the information." The OPA decided to publish a pamphlet to combat the increasing exchange of misinformation. "We determined information was thrown around too loosely regarding policy, admissions.... We wanted to compile accurate information in a place where it could be more easily disseminated," he said. "We are here to interact with the media to explain as accurately as possi ble why we take the position we take." Media of resentment

What position the media take, however, is another story. The GESO grade strike made headlines in newspapers around the country, from USA Today's article Grad students fight class struggle, to the Sacramento Bee's straightforward Yale protesters arrest ed, to the campus celebrity, the co-authored article by Debby Applegate, GRD '96, and Bruce Tulgan, entitled At Yale, a decent life is a radical idea. The tone of some articles was, if not alarmist, alarming. In a Sun., Jan. 21 article about the discontin uation of the grade strike, The Houston Chronicle noted that a TA who had lost her teaching assignment "wore the invisible wounds of someone who had played with fire and been singed." In addition, her eyes were "red-rimmed from crying," and she sat "slump ed...in a white fleece jacket." The story quoted her: "'We met their deadline,' she said plaintively." GESO members consistently take the initiative to support their cause. To characterize them as sacrificial lambs demands even more initiative from the im agination.

(See Media Watchdogs)

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