Times Up Committee

Protected: Time’s Up Committee

SPRING 2020 UPDATE: Last year, we launched a #NoCarveOut campaign, calling on Harvard administrators to provide survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination on the basis of race, gender, disability, and other marginalized identities the same protections that would be afforded student workers for any other violations of our contract: the right to have a neutral third-party, rather than a Harvard employee, make the final decision. The existing system has failed too many, and we will not rest until we have won independent recourse for survivors. Send an email to harvardtimesup@gmail.com if you want to talk about harassment or discrimination at Harvard or to organize with us.

Learn: Read more about a neutral third-party grievance procedure in our FAQs and “A Tale of Two Systems” flowchart.
Watch: Here are testmonials from several student workers and faculty:

In 2015, a campus climate survey conducted at Harvard found that nearly 50 percent of female graduate students reported being sexually harassed. In 1 out of 5 cases, this harassment was by a faculty member. It’s no surprise then that in the last year, two Harvard faculty members made the news with allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace. Cases in peer institutions where student workers have access to a grievance procedure and strong contract protections have shown that unionization can be a powerful tool to fight sexual violence. The Time’s Up Committee believes that building on union movements’ wins across the nation, we can address violence prevention, bring justice in our community at large, and ensure that affected workers receive the support they deserve through our first contract and through the power of collective action. You can read our contract proposal here.

Play Video

Marisa (Earth and Planetary Sciences, G1) explains the grievance procedure and why we’re fighting for #NoCarveOut

Aniqa (Public Health) talk about how critical a union griveance proecedure is.

Prof. Nagpal (SEAS) and Prof. Richardson (History of Science) talk about the problem of discrimination in graduate school.

Recent Activities

Community Meetings: In the summer of 2018 the Time’s Up Committee held community conversations across campus to talk about power, fairness, safety, and equity in relation to gender at Harvard. These conversations were aimed at building solidarity, raising awareness and facilitating idea generation for our first contract. The Community Meeting report was submitted to the Bargaining Committee for our first contract negotiations.
Making “Every Voice” Heard: Our Time’s Up Committee phone-banked for Resolution H.4159 to make sure our educational institutions commit to regular campus climate surveys.
Commencement Action: We supported a commencement action that centered around a letter to University President Drew G. Faust outlining demands.
Anniversary of the Chronicle Story on Jorge Dominguez: On February 27, 2019, a year after the Chronicle article on Harvard Professor Jorge Dominguez’s harassment of 18+ women across 36 years, members of the Time’s Up Committee distributed flyers across campus and hundreds of students sent emails to the administration asking for protections from harassment and discrimination in our #ContractNow. The day concluded with the delivery of a petition calling for an external review of Title IX processes at Harvard by students from the Government department.

Campus Sexual Harassment Update: Let’s Talk!: In November 2018, the Time’s Up committee held a campus update on sexual harassment with a panel of campus activists including GSD Womxn in Design, Graduate Women in Economics, Our Harvard Can Do Better, Pipeline Parity Project, and Gender Policy Union at HKS.
Time’s Up Rally: Over 350 people attended out #TimesUpHarvard Rally on March 13. We called on President Bacow to deliver our petition for a contract now and communicated our call for harassment and discrimination protections.
December 2019 Strike: Our December 2019 strike also centered our demand for a #NoCarveOut campaign.
Making #MeToo Count: On February 3rd, 2020, Nienke Grossman, Terry Karl, Suzanna Challen, and Charna Sherman — four women who have spoken out about sexual harassment at Harvard — returned to campus to talk about why they are still in this fight, joined by America’s top #MeToo lawyer, Debra Katz, and student activist and union organizer, Sejal Singh. You can watch the event here.
Time’s Up Advocates Training: We held our third discrimination disclosure training in February 2020 to launch our Time’s Up Advocates program.

Get Involved

We encourage you to reach out. Our committee members receive regular disclosure and trauma-aware conversation trainings from experts and the Office of Sexual Assault and Response at Harvard. If you have a testimonial to share, if you want to organize with us or if you have questions for us, please contact us at harvardtimesup [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

Here are a list of individuals who are currently serving as Time’s Up peer advocates. All of these individuals are happy to talk with you as peers, accompany you to meetings, and share our union’s resources with you. Contact us to get in touch with any advocate or look them up on Harvard Connections.

TIME’S UP ADVOCATES

Name

Ege Yumusak
Maya Anjur-Dietrich
Jessica Huang
Amy Frieder
Jordan Howell
Paloma Tuttle
Erik Van Vlack

Department

Philosophy
Applied Physics
Public Health
Law
History of Science
Chemistry
MCO