A university as expansive as Harvard requires thousands of teaching staff to preserve its academic reputation of integrity and curiosity. Though they are known by various names—professors, senior lecturers, preceptors, and College fellows—each faculty member’s mission is to educate. Tenured professors like Jason Furman ’92 and Michael Sandel enjoy unlimited lengths of stay at Harvard, and have the opportunity to teach thousands of students across decades in courses about their intellectual passions. In contrast, most non-tenured teaching (NTT) faculty have a set length of time they are allowed to instruct at the University, called a time cap.
NTT faculty have expressed grievances in response to this policy, condemning the forced uprooting of their lives once their contracts expire. University faculty and students are taking action against these limitations—a class walkout on March 4 was a recent community-wide response spearheaded by the Student Labor Action Movement and Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers.
At Harvard, time caps range anywhere from two to eight years, depending on the respective faculty position—two years for College Fellows, three years for lecturers, and eight years for preceptors.
NTT faculty have long spoken out against this policy. A recent report by the Time Caps Working Group found that 92% of time-capped faculty experienced trouble with career planning, and 89% reported adverse effects on mental health from the stress caused by a lack of job security. Anonymous statements in the report from survey respondents described the professional and personal threat of looming time caps as “a ticking time bomb in my career, my financial planning, and my family life.” Another survey response stated that due to their lack of research output, “there is no career path for [us] at Harvard.”
Despite the controversy surrounding time caps, there have also been favorable policy developments in the eyes of the opposition. Both SLAM and HAW-UAW have been persistent in fighting for workers’ rights since negotiations on time caps with the University began in September 2024. Four weeks ago, after considerable negotiating between the University and HAW-UAW, Harvard tentatively accepted a proposal to eliminate preceptor time caps via a process of tiered promotions. Yet this motion will only go through if union members accept new rules about the ending of their contracts. Union members would have to accept the distinction of the cessation of NTT employment at the end of their predetermined hiring period or immediate termination before the preset employment expiration date due to a specific reason.
However, even if this decision eliminates time caps for preceptors, HAW-UAW still remains committed to abolishing time caps for other NTT faculty, notably non-senior lecturers who “time out” after three years. Students feel similarly: two weeks ago, SLAM began a petition with over 1,400 total signatures among Harvard students and staff that was delivered to University President Alan Garber ’76, demanding an end to term limits for NTT faculty.
“Solidarity is not shared,” said Prince Williams ’25, an active SLAM member since his freshman year. “Solidarity is something that’s exercised on the realization that we have a shared struggle. We’re gonna have shared interests, and I think in the process of organizing with HAW, that remains clear.”
Disappointed by the lack of action following the petition, activists led a walkout—a joint effort from SLAM and HAW—and demanded justice for still-unprotected lecturers and other NTTs. A large gathering of students joined protesters from HAW to voice their concerns near the provost and president’s offices.
Such an event at Harvard is not unprecedented: last May, hundreds of graduates walked out of their commencement ceremony in protest of Harvard barring 13 seniors from graduating due to their involvement in protests against Harvard’s investment in Israeli military companies.
“I feel like with this walkout, I think it’s a test,” said Williams, who helped coordinate the student section at the walkout and took photos and videos of the event for SLAM’s Instagram. “It’s a test to see if we’re doing our jobs in terms of raising campus consciousness around the union fight,” continued Williams
Along with SLAM activists, University faculty ranging from department chairs to time-capped professors spoke at the event. “The only team-teaching I have done since getting tenure is with a lecturer,” said Germanic Languages and Literatures Department Chair Alison Frank Johnson. “[A lecturer and I] created together an amazing class that allowed me to do something I was afraid to do on my own. She had expertise I didn’t have, and she said to me, ‘We can do this together.’ And we created a class, and I loved it. Now, she’s gone. She isn’t gone because she didn’t advise senior theses and didn’t do independent studies with students who wanted them and she didn’t talk at events and didn’t ask good questions and didn’t make me a better teacher. She’s gone because she ran out of time.”
“I had eight faculties write to the dean, begging them to keep me. Everybody wants to keep me in the school. The students want me. The faculty wants me,” added School of Engineering and Applied Science preceptor Salma Abu Ayyash, under pressure of a time cap that will end her contract with Harvard in June. “The administration just plays this game of bureaucracy, of ‘these are the rules.’ They’re literally shooting themselves in the foot.”
Some, however, remain skeptical about what this walkout will accomplish. A first-year student anonymously commented on their concerns regarding such activism. “I’m also not quite sure how impactful protests are here, so I’m curious to see if action will take place,” they said. “There have been so many protests [and] we haven’t seen much change. So it would be curious [and] interesting to see what the administration does.”
Despite concerns over what impacts the walkout will have, those speaking at the protest remain positive. “For all of us here, I can say we’re all doing great jobs. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here. They would have found cause to fire us a long time ago,” Ayyash continued.
Whether Harvard’s administration removes time caps for other NTT faculty remains to be seen, with further bargaining sessions scheduled for March 6. Yet, HAW and SLAM will likely continue to put pressure on the University until time caps are eliminated.
Ben Kaufman ’28 (benkaufman@college.harvard.edu) writes News for the Independent.