HGSU-UAW Picket Disrupts Harvard GenEd Midterm, Draws Rebuke From Deming, Claybaugh

More than 20 striking members of the Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Auto Workers chanted and sounded air horns outside Emerson Hall Thursday as roughly 250 students took a GenEd midterm inside.

Some students taking the exam for GenEd 1116: “Biomedical Ethics and History” wore earplugs provided by their professor or noise-cancelling headphones in an effort to block the noise.

“They situated themselves right outside the wall towards that back classroom,” Brianna “Bri” L. DiMauro ’29 said, adding that neither the windows nor the earplugs effectively blocked the noise.

“Especially during those first 20, 30 minutes, it was just very hard to concentrate and read through the prompts and respond,” DiMauro added.

The picketing drew criticism from Harvard College Dean David J. Deming and Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh, who issued a joint statement to The Crimson Thursday night.

“A Harvard College midterm exam was disrupted today by picketers using megaphones and air horns. We hope that everyone in our community can agree that students have the right to take their exams without disruption,” the deans wrote. Neither administrator had previously commented publicly on the strike.

HGSU, which represents more than 4,000 workers at Harvard, began its second walkout of the year Tuesday after contract negotiations stalled. The strike comes nearly five months after the union ended a 40-day walkout in the spring — the longest in its history — without a contract.

Union members also picketed at Sanders Theatre, Zimmer Hall, and Harvard’s Longwood campus in Boston during the week.

HGSU Vice President Evan Lemire said members planned the Emerson Hall picket before learning there would be an exam on that day, though they knew a large GenEd course was meeting there.

Lemire, who attended Thursday’s picket, said that the union had planned to chant and make noise. Members who used noisemakers did so outside of the Yard, he said, in accordance with Harvard’s Campus Use Rules.

Some students said the picketing was louder than previous union demonstrators they had experienced.

“I feel like people were shouting right under my ears. I had earplugs, and I had headphones,” Dilafruz Salohiddin qizi Sobirova ’30 said. “I had two layers, but I could still hear everything.”

But several said they were able to concentrate despite the noise.

“It didn’t really distract me too much,” Anthony M. “Tony” Carballo ’30 said, adding that he benefitted from the extra 15 minutes course instructor David S. Jones ’93 provided students to finish their exams.

“It wasn’t really distracting to me,” Salohiddin qizi Sobirov said. “I didn’t really mind because I was so focused.”

In a statement responding to the deans, HGSU spokesperson Bonnie Jin said the union agreed that students should be able to take exams without disruption.

“HGSU is in an active labor dispute with Harvard University. Our workers are on strike for fair pay and safe work, and University administrators cannot expect business as usual,” Jin wrote.

“The sooner our workers receive a fair contract, the sooner we can return to work and to our educational mission,” she added. Jin said Jones had been informed of the planned picket two days in advance.

Jones said he tried to move the midterm after learning of the planned picket, but the FAS registrar’s office told him no other campus space could accommodate the class. He decided to hold the exam as scheduled.

“I could have rescheduled the exam, but when there’s an open-ended strike and the last strike lasted six weeks, I have no reason to believe that the campus will be less strike-involved Tuesday or Thursday or any time,” Jones said. “You can’t move an exam to take home because take home exams aren’t worth the paper they’re written on right now.”

“So I saw the options as either hold the exam despite the threat, or cancel the exam and fold the 15 percent into the final exam grade,” he added. “I thought that was unfair stress to put on the students in December.”

Several students said Jones should have moved the midterm.

“I thought he should just move the location of the midterm,” Alex Gao ’29 said. “I think people on Sidechat would say that too.”

“I think most people and myself agree that he should have moved the midterm. Like if he was actually sympathetic with the strike, he would have moved it, or they would have figured out something to help the undergrads,” DiMauro said.

Jones pushed back on the suggestion that moving the exam was feasible.

“I don’t know why students think Harvard has an endless stock of huge teaching spaces. I tried to move and could not,” he wrote in a statement.

Sobirova, however, said she was glad the exam had not been postponed.

“It was good for me to take this exam when all the information in my mind was fresh,” she said.

Gao, who questioned Jones’ decision to hold the exam, nonetheless praised his efforts to keep the course running during the strike.

“He still wants to preserve his class, and he still wants to protect his grad students, and he’s taking on so much extra work for himself in order to like maintain all the sections and maintain everything as usual,” he said.

In the days leading up to the exam, Jones wrote to students on Canvas multiple times regarding the potential union activity. On Tuesday, he wrote that union leadership had contacted him regarding Thursday’s planned activity. The following day came an announcement about earplugs that would be available to students.

“We have ordered 100 pairs of earplugs for Thursday (first come, first served—we’ll talk about the ethics of such rationing on 11/17),” he wrote.

And in a Thursday morning announcement, Jones informed them they may have to navigate a picket line.

“HGSU has the right to picket and the right to make noise. They do not have the right to block people coming and going from the building. You might want to leave some extra time, and to be prepared for background noise,” he wrote.

“I’m sorry that we have to go through this and thank you in advance for your understanding,” he added.

Though Jones has opted to continue his course as planned — keeping the midterm, and running 10 sections Thursday and Friday — not all faculty have done the same. Several courses have already changed assignments or moved their classes online as a result of the strike.

The union voted to authorize a strike earlier this month after contract negotiations with the University stalled. HGSU-UAW is striking on the basis of three core demands they say the University has not met: better wages, protection for non-citizen workers, and independent processes for harassment and discrimination complaints.

In a Monday email to Harvard affiliates, Provost John F. Manning ’82 and Executive Vice President Meredith L. Weenick ’90 called another strike “unwarranted” and argued that the two sides have already reached agreement on the issues the union cites as justifying a walkout.

—Staff writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at sbc.23. Follow him on X @SebastianC4784.

—Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ser.85. Follow her on X @summerellenrose.