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Teaching assistants at Yale University have withheld grades and have threatened to hold a strike to negotiate for higher wages and better benefits for their union. Rutgers University also received threats from the union for faculty members and teaching assistants. Union disputes have risen due to uncertainties in the federal budget. Campus officials have taken the conservative approach due to economic uncertainties of the state.

University of Cincinnati professors staged a walkout following disagreements between the faculty and administration during contract talks. The faculty union had earlier rejected a tentative contract agreement in Feb 1993 resulting from a mutual gains approach which the union and administration had adopted in recent years. The union criticized the administration's alleged poor prioritization and college president Joseph A. Steger's management of the school.

The economic recession has undermined the ability of faculty unions to effectively negotiate contracts with college and university administrators. Many unions have switched to a nonantagonistic approach to contract negotiation. Some have dropped the call for salary raises and have bargained for lower health care costs instead. Still, others have focused on nonmonetary issues such as academic workloads and faculty role in the administration of the educational institution.

STUDENT ASSOCIATIONS at several British universities are threatening to sever ties with the National Union of Students over its support of a grading boycott by university lecturers. Some students fear [...]

Professors that teach in the University of Massachusetts system are negotiating through the Massachusetts Society of Professors to protect themselves from being coerced into working longer hours for lower pay when teaching online classes. Officials at the University of Massachusetts believe the unions demands can be met quite easily.

Issues discussed concern the shut-down of Mexico's National Autonomous University due to a group of radical students protesting a proposed fee increase. The problems for students wanting to continue their education is addressed, as well as the inability of other colleges to absorb the excess students.

Yale University and the Federation of University Employees have reached agreement on a new labor contract in December, 1996, ending a prolonged standoff. The union, which included clerical workers, maintenance employees, and dining-hall workers, agreed to a 2-5% annual pay raise over six years, and also obtained a ten-year job guarantee. Yale obtained permission to use subcontractors for some tasks, but promised that no Yale employee would lose their job because of subcontracted work.

The French students' national strike was cut short by examinations and the Christmas holidays even though many campus organizations still want to continue protesting. It is unclear to what extent the student strike paralyzed university operations as it coincided in its last weeks with a nationwide transportation and labor strike. Student groups are undecided over a government proposal to give $75 million in emergency funds and $400 million for building repairs on top of the budget for universities in 1996.

French university students have taken to the streets to protest the French government's failure to provide allocations as promised, resulting in a shortage of faculty members and funds. Education Minister Francois Bayrou has pleaded for an end to the strikes that caused many universities to close down in Nov. 1995. To end the crisis, Bayrou has promised to draw up an emergency plan to ensure that all universities get equal treatment. The education minister has refused to be detailed about the aid plan, except to say that it is meant to work over a four-year period.