On Tuesday, April 9, 2002, at 10:45 PM, Timothy Francis-Wright wrote:
> Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>> I'm having a bit of a flamewar with my fellow Yalies on the class of
>> '75 list. A progressive black minister from New Haven, W. David Lee,
>> is running for the aptly named Yale Corporation, the university's
>> board of directors. Normally, the almuni association nominates a
>> candidate who runs unopposed. Lee took advantage of a petition option
>> and got on the ballot. Yale's unions are supporting his candidacy,
>> and Lee has said he wants to represent the interests of workers and
>> the New Haven community (i.e., the mostly poor people who live around
>> the tax-exempt university) on the board. The university is
>> distressed, and persuaded the sculptor Maya Lin to run against him as
>> their official candidate. Lin, of course, is perfect, being a woman
>> of Asian origins but with no particular politics other than upper
>> class liberal instincts. The university and the Yale Daily News has
>> been denouncing Lee as a "front for the unions," and one jerk on my
>> class list pretty much said that they'd be controlling things if Lee
>> won. Even though the sentiment of the class was overwhelmingly
>> pro-Gore in the 2000 elections, there appears to be not a single
>> pro-union voice besides mine.
>
> It's worse than that, I'm afraid. Usually, the nominating committee
> presents three or so options to the alumni. This time, after Lee
> had gotten enough signatures to ensure his place on the ballot,
> the committee nominated only one candidate. (Even the Yale Alumni
> Magazine noted this discrepancy in its March issue, but didn't
> see fit to scribe it to blatant anti-union feeling on the part
> of the Yale Corporation.) Anyone who was in New Haven in 1984 and
> 1985 knows just how much effort the Yale Corporation put out
> in a futile effort to break the clerical workers' union.
>
> A group of influential old Elis took out an ad in the latest YAM
> and sent a letter to all Yale alums urging a vote for Lin because
> Lee was violating norms by campaigning for election. The only
> "campaigning" that lee had done for my vote was to send a form
> letter to me asking for my signature for his candidacy. It seems
> that the university--through the actions of its adminsitration and
> its nominating committee, and through the actions of what I
> view to be a front group--is the real campaigner here. The
> best reasons to vote for Rev. Lee are the actions of his opponents.
>
> Tim Francis-Wright (Yale '88)
>
>
i just got a snailmail letter from a group of concerned yale alumni ("yale graduates for responsible trusteeship," as they call themselves) shilling for maya lin in the election and including two clippings from the yale daily news taking potshots at lee and his "union connections." apparently, the most offensive thing about him was his notion that maybe yale could make decisions differently, with some sense about the university's responsibility to the community. oooooooooohhh, that's sooooo scary.
the upside (or, more accurately, the one i've seen) is that there's at least a push among TA union organizers to use the alumni network to organize a bit around lee's candidacy. i've never paid any attention at all to these elections. this year, i'm paying attention.
the truth is that the one guy won't make THAT big a difference. and as i understand it, there've been people like skip gates who've at least been willing and able to speak at corporation meetings about things like unions. nevertheless, i think there's something watershed about this--if it matters at all, it will be because someone was elected precisely on a platform of something like social responsibility.
seems to me.
j