Student Workers Deserve Compensation in Times of Crisis

On Friday, my coworkers and I were notified that along with all other Dean of Student Office interns on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion team, our work hours as Diversity Peer Educators would be reduced significantly: from around 10 hours a week to roughly 3.5 hours each week. Presumably, the justification for drastically reducing our hours, a vital source of income for many of us, is that the University is preparing for financial loss due to coronavirus. This news followed an email from Michael P. Burke, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Registrar, earlier this week which said that Harvard would continue to pay students with on-campus jobs that could be performed remotely — which presumably would have included us and other DSO interns. Not only has Harvard continued to communicate misleading information about our job security, but the decision to cut our hours exemplifies a disregard for the financial impact of this crisis on student workers and a devaluation of the importance of our work that must be remedied.

As a New Yorker, I’ve spent the past few days watching my city become ravaged by the coronavirus. Every few hours, I am devastated to learn of yet another person in my community who is struggling to fight COVID-19. When I step outside to grab the mail or run to the pharmacy, I worry that I will catch the virus and infect my immunocompromised family members. The hospitals closest to me don’t have enough ventilators, protective equipment for their workers, and are battling increasing death rates. Amid all this anxiety about mine and my loved ones’ health, I worry about my family’s impending financial issues. The decision to cut my hours has prevented me from supporting my family and has only increased my anxiety during this tumultuous time. Other interns who have used their income throughout the school year to support their families will suffer even more than I will.

Yet, complete disregard for workers is not new for the Harvard administration. From failing to negotiate a fair contract for graduate students to initially suggesting that dining hall staff and custodial workers would be temporarily laid off after 30 days, Harvard has continued to prioritize maintaining its endowment above its workers' livelihoods. While my circumstances are not comparable to denying what may be the sole source of income for many workers, the justification has been the same: that the University does not have the resources. The insinuation that Harvard University’s $40 billion endowment, the largest for any university in the world, would be depleted by paying its student employees is preposterous.

These claims are not only outrageous, but they communicate a disregarding of the work of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion offices including the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, the Office of BGLTQ Student Life, the Harvard College Women’s Center, and my own — the Office of Diversity Education and Support. As a Diversity Peer Educator, I am trained in facilitating dialogues on issues facing Harvard students, hosting community events, and offering inclusivity training for student organizations. The DPE program has allowed me to utilize my passion for social justice to help shape the Harvard community into one that is more inclusive of our diverse student body at a time where a substantial number of students, especially students of color, do not feel that they belong. Despite increased demand for our facilitated dialogues and the importance of our trainings and consultations for student organizations, we have only been given 18 hours for the rest of the semester to continue our crucial work. Our work is an example of the “commitment to diversity” that the University continues to espouse — one that should not stop during this crisis. It is in the most difficult times that an institution's real commitments are exposed, and right now diversity education and support does not appear to be one of them.

Despite this devastating news, the DPE community is not one that can be destroyed by the administration's tone-deaf policies. When we received this news, several of my coworkers immediately offered to give up their hours to those who have a greater need for the income. The lack of empathy that the administration has exhibited to the plight of Harvard student workers is not one that is shared by my coworkers.

But just as Harvard made the right choice in changing its decision and paying workers through May, Harvard can maintain employment for all students who can work remotely, including DSO interns. They should also compensate student employees who rely on term-time employment but are unable to work, such as library workers, through a weekly stipend as Mike Burke proposed last week in a retracted email to the student body. Harvard must ensure that during a global pandemic student employees are compensated for their work so they can support themselves and their families.

Salma I. Elsayed ’23, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Stoughton Hall.