But many faculty members—including A-35 Professor and Quincy House Master Robert P. Kirshner ’70—offered their students an alternative exam time so students could attend the peace protest.

Fifty students congregated in Quincy House Dining Hall at 8 a.m. yesterday morning to take their exam.

Several professors who were holding midterms during the hour allowed their students to reschedule their tests so that they could participate in the walkout.

Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value Elaine Scarry offered her students in English 151: “The 19th Century Novel” the option of taking their midterm—originally scheduled during the protest time—at three different times during the day.

Scarry, who suggested that military intervention in Iraq better matched “the model of torture than the model of war” in a speech at the rally, said she did not want her students to be punished academically because of their political beliefs.

“These students are actually doing something harder because they have less time to study,” Scarry said.

Nearly 150 members of the faculty signed a statement against waging war on Iraq, and some spoke out against the war at the rally in front of a teeming crowd.

“Education means nothing if we your teachers cannot stand with you in solidarity and practice what we preach,” said Lecturer in History and Literature Tim McCarthy ’93, who skipped teaching English 176a: “American Protest Literature” with Associate Professor of English John Stauffer yesterday. “America is what it is because of those who have been encouraged to challenge the status quo.”

The rally drew students from several local schools as well as longtime local activists.

Cambridge resident James Williamson, who participated in Vietnam protests more than three decades ago, said the turnout of Harvard members inspired him.

“It’s really moving to me that there are this many young people,” he said, on the verge of tears. “People here have chosen they’re not just going to be spectators.”

—Staff writer Nathan J. Heller can be reached at heller@fas.harvard.edu.