Roughly 200 first-year Harvard Law School students — more than a third of the class — have signed letters supporting Harvard graduate student workers’ strike and urging their professors to press the University to reach an agreement with HGSU-UAW, according to central organizer and first-year law student Matthew T. Tyler.
Five of the Law School’s seven first-year sections — academic cohorts of roughly 80 students who take the same core classes — have sent letters to their section professors. The remaining two sections are still collecting signatures.
The letters call on Harvard to reach a fair contract with the graduate student union and ask section faculty to sign onto a faculty statement supporting HGSU-UAW and HAW-UAW strike action. The faculty statement, which has been signed by more than 100 Harvard faculty members, commits signatories to not hiring replacement workers for striking graduate students and calls on the University to reach an agreement with the unions.
Nine HLS faculty members have signed the faculty statement so far.
At HLS, graduate student workers serve as teaching fellows who hold office hours and review sessions for first-year core classes. Other law students also support first-year students through the First-Year Legal Research and Writing Program as members of the Board of Student Advisers.
The student letters also urge teaching fellows to join the strike, including by not holding office hours or review sessions. In at least one first-year section, all teaching fellows have canceled their remaining office hours.
“It was mostly a demonstration of solidarity with our HGSU members, who really have helped to make 1L a much easier and better experience,” said Ethan B. Reichsman ’19, a former Crimson Arts writer.
“It was a small way to thank them for everything that they’ve done, and to just show them that they shouldn’t be worried on our account for their strike actions,” he added.
Tyler said the letters were organized by a group of roughly 15 students across several first-year sections. Each section circulated its own version of the letter and waited until at least 30 students had signed before sending it to professors, he said.
“I do also think it’s worth, from our end, commending the students who are willing to take this public stance in support of the union,” Tyler said. “For a lot of students, they’re a little bit nervous about it, specifically because finals are coming around.”
“We’re saying that we understand we’re not going to have review sessions and office hours, and we think that it’s worth giving those up in order to support our TFs,” he added.
First-year law student Mark Halley, a former president of the United Faculty of Florida chapter at the University of North Florida, said he signed and circulated his section’s letter because of his commitment to workers’ advocacy.
Halley said the request was not intended to be adversarial toward faculty, but rather a way for students to communicate their support for graduate student workers.
“I recognize the faculty are in a different position than students, and some people might feel comfortable or not comfortable to say things depending on tenure status,” Halley said.
“This is just a way for students to share what is important to many of us with our faculty, and we hope that they’re willing to join us on that,” he added.
—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at uy.pham@thecrimson.com or on Signal at ubp.88. Follow him on X @uybpham.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/5/5/hls-student-hgsu-letter/
