Neither can Elizabeth Doherty, assistant dean for academic planning in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, or Elaine Bernard, who directs the Trade Union Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Even if Harvard professors wanted to organize, they would not enjoy the right to do so under any law.

For private institutions, the relevant labor legislation is the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which protects the right of employees to engage in collective bargaining.

But a Supreme Court ruling in 1980, known as the Yeshiva decision, established that professors at private universities are not really employees because they often participate inadministrative decisions at the institutions wherethey teach.

Under Yeshiva, Bernard and Weiler explain,faculty at private schools are not consideredemployees and are thus not entitled to NLRAprotections.

Bernard says that for a coalition of Harvardprofessors to engage in collective bargaining, theadministration would have to volunteer torecognize it as the voice of the faculty.

"Employers tend to resist unionization,"Bernard says. "We're a democracy in word, not inpractice."

Weiler speculates that Harvard faculty have notmade attempts to organize because they seethemselves as "relatively speaking, prettywell-off."

"There hasn't been that need felt," Weilersays.

He also notes that Harvard is "much moredepartmentalized" than other schools.

This means faculty who serve in anadministrative capacity tend to participate inpolicy-making at the highest levels.

"Certainly at HLS," Weiler says, "the schoolitself makes decisions for itself."

Doherty, whose duties include faculty issueswithin the FAS, says workloads vary fromdepartment to department.

A glance at the course catalogue confirms thatwhile faculty in most humanities departments teachfour courses per year, economic professors tend toteach three, and most faculty in the naturalsciences offer only two courses per year.

According to Doherty, decisions about teachingloads and other duties--including serving oncommittees, evaluating theses, running labs andtutoring students--are made at the departmentallevel.

Because departments are run by members of thefaculty, professors enjoy a large measure ofresponsibility for determining what is required oftheir themselves and their colleagues.

Despite the apparent contentment at Harvardamong professors, Alger stresses the potential forfaculty to engage in collective action--aninformal way for professors to exert pressure inthe absence of an express right to collectivebargaining.

What concerns the AAUP, Alger says, is that"workload decisions, which affect the quality ofeducation, ought to be made by academicadministrators and faculty, not statelegislators.