Not that PSLM is afraid of Summers. Amy C. Offner ’01 reportedly told her minions that Summers is “very ugly and remarkably inarticulate.” But don’t count on Summers to feel injured by Offner’s fighting words. He may lack aesthetic charm or conversational cunning, but he sure as hell won’t let his office be occupied.

So PSLM is praying Rudenstine will want to add something more to the legacy that currently reads, “He once raised $1 million in a single day.” They’re praying he’ll take a stand before Summers kicks them off their platform.

PSLM gambled, but the odds are against them. They forgot to account for Rudenstine’s temperament. He’s a scholar, not a leader. Stuck in the ivory tower of inaction to the last, Rudenstine will hand over his office to Summers untainted by momentous decisions changing the course of Harvard’s history—though it will be irrevocably tainted by the smell of 30 unwashed undergraduates.

That’s a sad remark to make at the end of a man’s tenure as president of this prestigious university. Yet I have an ineffable sense of pity for Rudenstine and his predicament. I can imagine him, sitting on his desert island (wireless Internet?), hoping against hope that the protesters will run out of food, or interest, before graduation. Anything so that he can just go on into the world in peace.

Rudenstine, I hate to tell ya, the world is not at peace. What PSLM is really sitting in for is not just about janitors, not just about dining hall workers, not just about $10.25 or Harvard’s responsibility as a member of the Cambridge community.

PSLM is sitting in against inequality. Inequality that’s big, that’s global, that affects Domna as much as it affects the garment workers in Indonesia, the diamond miners in South Africa and the students at Harvard. PSLM has made inequality easy for us to understand. A living wage, a floor below which no one should sink. A standard of living. Harvard’s direct responsibility to those it employs. Harvard’s ability to make up the difference.

But when it comes to inequality on a global scale, things get more complicated. We, the collective Harvard We, are benefitting from this rising inequality. We’re going to earn more, as those with less education and less skills see their wages decline. We, the collective American We, are benefiting from low-price consumer goods and increasing jobs in higher-paid sectors. We, the collective developed nations We, are benefiting from better trade balances and environmental standards.