Academic and Graduate Student Union Leaders Rally in Support of Time-Capped and Non-Citizen Workers

Around 200 Harvard affiliates gathered to protest what union leaders called prolonged inaction from the University on key contract negotiations for non-tenure-track faculty and graduate students during a Wednesday rally in the Science Center plaza.

Leaders from Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers and Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Auto Workers urged Harvard to accept their proposals aimed at protecting time-capped faculty and non-citizen graduate student workers across speeches and chants.

Harvard Kennedy School student Chet Agni decried Harvard’s eight-month delay in responding to an HGSU-UAW proposal for non-citizen student worker rights in a speech to attendees — noting that immigration enforcement activity continues to grip national attention.

Agni said Harvard has left international graduate student workers exposed to immigration enforcement by declining to adopt protections related to legal representation and continued employment.

“We’ve asked the university to commit to not allowing ICE into our workplaces, unless mandated to do so by judicial warrant — very reasonable, right? We’ve asked them to cover the legal expenses of our affiliates, ofcourse to pay legal fees to the tens of thousands per person,” he said. “We’ve asked them to not fire student workers who are detained or denied entry at the border.”

HGSU-UAW first introduced a proposal to Harvard in June seeking expanded legal assistance funding for international workers, guaranteed union representation in immigration proceedings, and job protections for workers detained by immigration authorities.

“These are basic asks and yet, all these have been refused. And we have yet to see any alternative presented that provides material protections for our community,” Agni said.

Spokespeople for the University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At the rally, leaders from HAW-UAW also expressed frustration with the lack of progress in contract negotiations with the University, particularly over time caps for non-tenure-track faculty.

J. Gregory Given, a HAW-UAW bargaining committee member and preceptor in Expository Writing, said the union’s approach has been hindered by repeated delays and rejections from the University.

“We’ve been playing an elaborate game of telephone, and there’s increasingly little evidence anybody’s listening on the other side of the line,” he said.

Given acknowledged that Harvard officials had recently proposed an offer for removing time caps for preceptors and lecturers — though he said he did not view the arrangement as feasible.

“The administration did offer a framework that would at least make it theoretically possible for non-tenure-track faculty to ascend three steps to an indefinitely renewable contract, but they have studded that offer with poison pills,” he said in a speech.

The University’s proposal would have upped the number of required classes lecturers and preceptors instruct to five or six sections each year, in addition to instituting a yearly minimum requirement on the number of students they teach.

Local musicians Jake Wise and Michael Prentky — carrying a clarinet and trombone, respectively — also attended the rally and played Eastern European music to advocate for language programs affected by existing time caps.

“The broader Jewish community is concerned about the time caps impacting Harvard’s Yiddish program,” Wise said in an interview after the rally.

Wise described the impending expiration of the contract of Harvard’s sole preceptor in Yiddish, Sara M. Feldman, as “completely unacceptable.”

Feldman said in an interview that the rally underscored the importance of building solidarity among Harvard workers across roles and departments.

“We’re really atomized here, and we don’t meet other people,” she said. “We’re not connected. And this was an opportunity for all of us to see that there are other people here that care about us, there are other people here that care about you — and we’re stronger together.”

Correction: February 6, 2026

A previous version of this article stated that 120 Harvard affiliates attended the rally. In fact, approximately 200 affiliates gathered in the Science Center plaza.

—Staff writer Taylor M. Bierwerth can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @tmbierwerth.

—Staff writer Noah A. Ferris can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at naf.88. Follow him on X at @NoahAFerris.