On April 24th, I entered Harvard Yard for a rally. In my eight years as a PhD student and graduate labor organizer at the university, I had joined gatherings under the John Harvard statue too many times to count, protesting for demands ranging from union recognition to fossil fuel divestment, ruining many a tourist selfie in the process. Some of these rallies were part of broader disruptions, such as a 2019 graduate student strike that slowed down teaching and grading at Harvard for nearly a month, or a three-day 2021 strike that interrupted parents’ weekend. Each time, however, we watched the university calmly shrug off our efforts. The work of engineering such crises wore out each new crop of organizers, but Harvard barely seemed to feel them at all. ….more
