Ed. School Students Rally for Professor's Tenure

A handful of Harvard Graduate School of Education students stood quietly on the porch steps to Longfellow Hall on Thursday at about 8 a.m., holding freshly printed white and yellow signs that said “Tenure Mark Warren” and raising them silently as cars passed down Appian Way.

The students’ protest was a continuation of their efforts to convince the Ed School administration to approve the tenure of Ed School professor Mark R. Warren, who specializes in community organizing and school reform.

According to the protestors—who consisted of masters and doctoral students—a few students at a time will be sitting in the hallway of Longfellow in front of the door to Ed School Dean Kathleen McCartney’s office every day until Commencement.

The rotating group of protestors will be drawn from roughly 90 students on a mailing list created in response to Warren’s April 12 tenure denial.

In mid-April, 60 students gathered outside of a faculty meeting to protest the decision regarding Warren.

“What he does ... is absolutely important to the work of education,” said Houman D. Harouni, a student at the protest on Thursday. “It’s the kind of work that’s definitely missing from Harvard.”

“People are very unhappy at the direction this school is going in,” said Ayana Kee, an Ed School student at the sit-in on Thursday. “We will wait as long as it takes for [the dean] to do the right thing.”

Michael G. Rodman, Ed School director of communications, said that prior to the start of the sit-ins on Thursday, McCartney had reached out to the group of protestors and offered to meet with them in a small face-to-face setting to discuss their views. The protestors have not responded to the invitation.

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.