Divest Harvard, SLAM Distribute Flyers at S’mores Event

Members of student activist groups Divest Harvard and the Student Labor Action Movement partnered and distributed flyers for their causes at a University-organized event outside the Science Center on Thursday.

University President Drew G. Faust sent a campus-wide email last week publicizing the event, which was meant to mark the end of a snowy winter and give thanks to “everyone who kept Harvard running smoothly” during the snowstorms that forced many Harvard schools to cancel classes.

Members of student activist groups Divest Harvard and the Student Labor Action Movement distributed flyers for their causes at a University-organized event outside the Science Center on Thursday. The activist groups requested that students sign a thank-you card for Harvard staff and Harvard University Dining Services workers, who they argued were disproportionately affected by recent snowstorms. By Madeline R. Lear

Event attendees were served hot chocolate and made s’mores as student activists discussed climate change and the difficulty the storms placed on Harvard employees. Nina R. Wagner ’18, a member of SLAM, said the groups partnered because they believe that the intense storms were caused at least in part by climate change, and those storms greatly affected the University's workers.

The activist groups requested that students sign a thank-you card for Harvard staff and Harvard University Dining Services workers. They also distributed flyers about the “intersections between social justice and climate change, especially as it pertains to transportation going down for workers and it especially affecting low income and communities of color,” said Naima Drecker-Waxman ’18, a member of Divest Harvard, which advocates for Harvard to divest its endowment from fossil fuel companies.

Members of both organizations emphasized that they were not there to stage a protest, but rather to call attention to what they see as the disproportionate effect the storms have had on Harvard employees. The groups plan to collaborate again in the spring during a rally for increasing the minimum wage.

—Staff writer Madeline R. Lear can be reached at madeline.lear@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @madelinerlear.