The channels of communication between administrators and students are more open here than at Yale. PSLM representatives meet with Ryan on a regular basis.
"There are certainly people here who will listen to us, but the question is what's going to happen because of it," said PSLM member Benjamin L. McKean '02. "As long as Harvard's in the FLA and not in the WRC, [direct action] is possible."
McKean, who is also a Crimson editor, pointed to the ongoing sit-in at Johns Hopkins University, involving about 25 students, as evidence of the strength of the national student labor movement.
He said this sit-in is especially significant because protesters have extended their demands beyond the issue of sweatshop policy. They want Johns Hopkins to institute a living wage for all university employees, in addition to withdrawing from the FLA.
PSLM's living wage campaign has made a similar demand to the Harvard administration but has not achieved its aims.
"If the living wage movement can come together like the sweatshop movement has then it would be terribly powerful," McKean said.