Harvard Students Struggle With Loss of Academic Support Amid Graduate Student Strike

More than a week after Harvard’s graduate student union went on strike, students are beginning to feel the absence of teaching fellows and course assistants in their classrooms.

Students, particularly those in large lecture courses, have struggled to find academic support previously offered through discussion sections and office hours — sessions typically led by graduate students.

Harvard’s graduate student workers went on strike last week, demanding higher wages and benefits, protections for noncitizen workers, and an independent process for harassment and discrimination complaints. The Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers also went on strike earlier this year for 40 days, the longest walkout in the union’s history, but ended the strike in the spring without a contract.

Without regular sections or office hours, students said they have struggled to understand challenging course material, particularly ahead of midterm exams.

Ruby D. Wattenberg ’30, who is enrolled in GENED 1074: “The Ancient Greek Hero,” said the course requires “a lot of heavy reading” that she is unfamiliar with. Without section, she said, it has been difficult to stay “on track with the material.”

“The learning process has become a lot more independent, which has been difficult,” said Wattenberg.

Nathan D. Esses ’29, who is enrolled in an organic chemistry course, said it was “extremely difficult” to understand course concepts without additional academic support.

“I’m missing a deep understanding of the topics, which makes it hard when I take the tests,” Esses said.

HGSU declined to comment. A Harvard spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

In the absence of regular academic support, some students have improvised their own solutions.

“We have to self-study, or sometimes we meet up without the section leader and just talk to each other, because we still feel that’s helpful,” Santiago Domenech Revilla ’30 said.

Because teaching fellows and course assistants typically handle grading, students also said they are missing out on individualized feedback on their assignments. Revilla said his professor is looking for “another way to grade us” if the strike does not end.

“It’s a little frustrating because we spent quite a good amount of time preparing for it,” Revilla said.

But Esses said the absence of teaching fellows has also lightened the workload in some of his classes.

“It’s pretty great because all of the assignments get pushed off,” Esses said.

Students are also planning around the strike when choosing their classes for the spring semester, as class registration opened Wednesday.

“I’m basically targeting courses where the TAs and TFs are not grad students,” Sophanit Ngorn ’30 said.

Despite the disruption, some students expressed sympathy for the striking graduate workers. Zain T. Carrimjee ’30 said he “would love for them to come back,” but acknowledged the complexity of the union’s ongoing negotiations with Harvard.

“We understand that there’s important issues that need to be dealt with, and that there’s important things on the line, and that we’re not the only stakeholders in all of this,” Carrimjee said.