Overview
- Wu told Harvard she would not speak rather than cross the picket line of the Harvard Graduate Student Union‑UAW, a move she and the union framed as consistent with labor solidarity.
- Over several days Wu’s team and Harvard Law marshals proposed alternatives such as a virtual address or an on‑stage acknowledgement of the strike, but the union declined those options.
- Harvard Law notified students that with Wu and one award recipient unable to participate it would shift the program to student award winners and drop another scheduled speaker from the lineup.
- The union, which represents about 4,000 graduate students and has been on strike since April 21 seeking higher pay, stronger discrimination investigation procedures, and more support for non‑citizen workers, plans to picket Commencement and Class Day events.
- Negotiations between HGSU‑UAW and Harvard resumed with a bargaining session set for May 29, a step that could determine whether the strike — now the longest in the union’s history — continues to disrupt teaching, research, and campus logistics.