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first-year TA in the School of Natural
Resources, who didn't join GEO.
"There's not enough discussion and too
much rhetoric going on. I can't under-
stand why they can't get together."
Ritchie says that his experience with
other schools has shown him that non-
unionized graduate student staffs fare
better than GEO has. "The dealings
between graduate students and ad-
ministration were much more low-key
and much more productive," he says.
GEO remains one of the few graduate
student unions in the country and the
only one in the Midwest that is
recognized formally by its school's ad-
ministration.
Because the contract failed, this will
be the first year since GEO's creation
that TAs have not received a pay hike.
In addition, graduate students are
receiving the same break on tuition
they did a year ago-despite this year's
15 percent tuition increase. In previous
years, the reduction in TAs' tuition has
increased in proportion to tuition hikes.
The University says it now is in the
awkward position of being unable to
grant the pay and tuition "waiver" in-
creases even though it wants to. That's
because both sides agree a unilateral,
non-negotiated pay hike would be con-
sidered an unfair labor practice.
For TAs who won't be back after this
term, that could mean a loss of $400 to
$600, according to John Forsyth, the
key University official for GEO affairs.
The leadership of the moderate group
says the militants are responsible for
allowing TAs to lose that money, and
they cite the loss as evidence of a lack
of interest on the part of the left wing in
the real needs of TAs. The moderates
believe the left wing of GEO is more
concerned with their own political
ideology, more with "Marxist
revolution," than with the welfare of
TAs.
"To them, this is the closest thing to a
class struggle," says Marty Burke, who
Classic
trio
torodin Trio
Rackham Auditorium
8:30 p.m. Saturday, November 20
By Lauris Kaldjian
W HEN THE institutions of
marriage and government are at
odds with each other who wins? Well, in
the case of the Borodin Trio, we do.
As Soviet citizens, violinist Rostislav
Dubinsky and pianist Luba Edlina were
not permitted to perform together out-
side of the Soviet Union because they
are husband and wife. Consequently, in
1976 they emigrated to the west, along
with cellist Yuli Turovsky. These three
musicians comprise the Borodin Trio
and will display the fruits of their long
association in Rackham Auditorium
this weekend.
The members of the Borodin Trio
have performed in various com-
binations while in the Soviet Union. As
the founder and first violinist of the
Borodin Quartet, Dubinsky was joined
by Edlina in the piano-strings and
piano-violin repertoire. Edlina also ac-
companied Turovsky in the piano-cello
repertoire. Though they continue their
duo ensemble performing today, most
of their concerted efforts are in the trio
literature.
The piano, violin, and cello form a
uniquely balanced ensemble. Unlike
the string quartet, the trio does not
have any subordinate members. The
chordal facilities of the piano allow it to
carry melodies and offer harmonic
support simultaneously. The com-
plementary voices of the violin and
cello add immensely to textural
possibilities and create instrumental
dialogue. When wisely exploited, a
piano trio is a work that combines three
distinct instruments whose lines give,
take, and share equally with one
another.
As with any intimate relationship,
time is essential to chamber music. The
perception and sensitivity that cham-
ber musicians must show is a result of
mutual experience. (Some of the
greatest virtuosi have been the worst
chamber musicians.) The members of
the Borodin Trio have had the
necessary time to understand each
other's idiosyncrasies and bents; and
once this is accomplished, an ensemble
is molded into a single trio, not a trio of
singles.
For their program the trio has selec-
ted works by Tchaikovsky (Trio in A
min., Op. 50) and Schubert (Trio in E
flat, Op. 100, D.929). The juxtaposition
of these two names seems odd,
especially in terms of chamber music.
Tchaikovsky's relatively few chamber
works are severely overshadowed by
the rest of his literature. Contrarily,
Schubert's many and varied chamber
works epitomize important aspects of
his style.
Programming such a musical com-
parison allows the listener an oppor-
tunity to consider the differences in the
works of two substantially different
composers. Tchaikovsky and Schubert
do share some common ground (though
they stand at opposite ends of it)-
the romantic period. As the first great
romantic, Schubert began to break
from the late classicism that ended
with Beethoven, and as a result his
style exhibits more clearly defined and
controlled phrasing. Tchaikovsky, with
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TAs: Teaching under fire.
GEO
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employer. Ever since 1976, the Univer-
sity refused to sign a contract with the
union, saying its members were not ac-
tual employees but only were working
under a sort of financial aid, work-
study plan.
Then, in November of last year,
something short of a miracle occurred.
Having just lost an appeal with the
state employee relations department,
the University gave up. The ad-
ministration, under the direction of the
Regents, said it would return to the
bargaining table to negotiate a new
contract with the then 38-member TA
organization.
Suddenly, other graduate students
woke up to GEO. By September of this
year, the organization's membership
had soared to more than 600. And a
GEO bargaining team in July had
agreed to a three-year contract with the
University and readied it for a mem-
bership vote this fall.
But then the roof caved in.
By mid-September, factions of the
union leadership were fighting with one
another over the quality of the contract
and over the bargaining process from
which it grew. The anger on both sides
was fierce, and some of the leaders
limped away from the melee, calling it
the worst experience they'd ever had.
Suddenly, after surviving so many ups
and downs in its interminable struggle
with the University, GEO was facing a
fight with what some said was its
toughest opponent ever: itself.
The vicious attacks alienated a large
section of the current membership as
well as a significant number of poten-
tial union recruits. And the possibility
that GEO may soon lose its status as the
tA's official bargaining unit looms over
every move the union now makes.
After this fall's battle, GEO now finds
itself with no unified voice, no forward
direction, no sense of solidarity, and-
some say-no purpose.
To some-the members of GEO's
more militant, left-wing faction--the!
problems began when a weak-kneed
group of student bargainers succumbed
to administration pressures and
brought back to the membership a con-
tract that offered little more in wages
and other benefits than TAs were
already getting. In fact, they argued,
with inflation and skyrocketing tuition
taken into account, the contract would
have meant an actual cut in pay for
TAs.
To others-those who are called the
union's right wing (a misnomer in itself
as most consider themselves to be near
the far left of the political spectrum)-
the union's failings lay clearly in the in-
transigence of the militants. These
"Birmingham-raised Leninists," as
one TA describes them, are more in-
terested in promoting social transfor-
mation than the good of teaching
assistants.
For the moment, the right wing has
called it quits, disgusted by the militan-
ts' attacks and doubting that the union
can achieve anything under ideological
domination. "We're tired of being ac-
cused of being anti-GEO," says one,
"so we're telling them 'Fuck you-go
ahead and have your little fling.' "
At the heart of this internal conflict is
a dispute over the union's strength. On
the one hand, membership has in-
creased dramatically in just one year
and has continued to grow since the
contract's defeat three weeks ago. The
militants argue that the membership is
demanding deep concessions from the
University and that the graduate
students will stand by their union,
ready to strike if necessary. The grad
students showed their determination,
the left wing claims, by soundly
defeating a contract in which the union
made few gains.
On the other hand, fewer than half of
students eligible to join GEO actually
are members of the union, fewer than
one in four teaching assistants par-
ticipated in the contract vote, and only
186 of the more than 1,600 teaching and
staff assistants in the University ac-
tually voted "no." Union meetings still
can't attract more than a tiny fraction
of all TAs. In sum, there are a lot of
grad students who-like Michael Ken-
ney of the School of Natural Resour-
ces-believe they are "being treated
fairly by the University."
Given the University's bleak finan-
cial situation and a general apathy
among graduate students, the
moderates argue, the ill-fated contract
was in fact the best bargain possible for
today's TAs.
With allsthe bickering at the top,
many TAs wonder when the leadership
will ever get around to serving them.
"The leadership is such that each
side has its own ideas about the way
things ought to be run and is fighting
with the others," says Mark Ritchie, a
Borodin Trio: Balanced ensemble
his sweeping melodies and expressive
freedom, writes in a late-Romantic
style far removed from Schubert's
pristine beginning. This contrast
manifests the passage of time in one
period of musical history.
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Peter Gabriel
Hill Auditorium
8 p.m. Saturday, November 20
By C.E. Krell
S O TICHO said to write about the
album covers, but why? The first
album has a picture of Peter Gabriel on
it. The second album, on the cover, has
a picture of Peter Gabriel. Peter
Gabriel appears on the cover of the
third album. That fourth album has a
picture, too. I think it may be Pete.
So Larry said to write Sanskrit. San-
skrit. Sanskrit. Sanskrit. Sanskrit...
So I said I may write about sex. About
sex: It's wonderful, and it gets better
the more you do it. Then it can go stale.
Let's play allegory roulette. We'll
pretend Peter Gabriel is sex.
Gabriel started out sex-like. A
darkened stage. Slowly, a spotlight
points out a rather large egg (ovum?).
The egg breaks open and out pops a
flower dressed like a man, singing
about sex: see "Counting out Time"-
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
For Genesis, this would be the climax
of a wonderful, twee sort of existense.
As far as I know, the lamb ascended in-
to vinyl heaven, and ole Pete left. Went
away, gone. El Exodus. Gabriel smokes
a cigarette.
P.G. I was ok, neat, gee, yea, fun, like
climbing up on Solsbury Hill. More sex.
Another orgasmic rendition. I have to
say it: Jetzt Kommt Die Flut. Slap!
P.G. II was not a Genesis like album
so much as it was an excellent exercise
in aerobic rock/pop. P.G. III was not II
so much as excellent investigation into
a case work of a synthesis of syn-
thesized stylistic detective endeavors.
Rock, pop, disco. At the end of III
(you know III. It has a picture of Peter
Gabriel on the cover), there was a foray
into the fray of African sensibility and
rhythm as a basis for composition and
enjoyment: "Biko," a large
pohleetikall statement for a man who
had talked about sex so much.
Sprung from this came WOMAD, the
world of music, art, and dance. You've
bought the album, now read the dirt.
Our Pete lost his terror filled overdress
on this British fest of international
musics from around the globe. If you
haven't bought the album, go ahead and
get Pete out of debt, so he doesn't have
to perform again with the name that he
has striven so hard to rip himself clean
from: Genesis (yes, he did it). Thanks
partly to Gabriel, African pop now
troddeth de airwaves.
So from WOMAD came P.G. IV;
Africaned, rhythmed, and beaten out.
Sex returns as "The Family and The
Fishing Net." It disappointed, though.
Jetzt kommt die short paragraph.
Now that we've picked up the glass of
pop, let's look at the bubbles. Bubbles
are intrinsically good journalism copy.
Peter Gabriel has had a lot more ef-
fect than effectively given credit effects
for. Performance-flowers, masks,
tight wires, lasers, clouds, lights. Solo
records also. No P.G. Band, but a smat-
tering of innovative and thought
provoking and downright freaked out
baddass musicians. Robert Fripp,
Larry Fast, Tony Levin, Paul Weller,
Kate Bush, Ekome-a veritable
Kellogg's variety. Pak. Carving out
sound from sounds from stones of
people. A little learning from your
sculpture.
Sound only from the man who wrote
"I talk in pictures not in words." Say
goodbye to flesh and blood, Gabriel's
words range from the obscure, to the
more obscure, to the relevant to the
clever to the dumb. Yet interest holds-
songs as extended allegories-and you
get them or you don't.
Peter Gabriel's most popular album
was his third solo effort, after the well-
set pace of the opening chapter. The
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Gabriel: I, II, III, IV
GEO: Internal division
16 Weekend/ November 19. 19825W
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