“I didn’t have much interaction with faculty, says HIPJ member Rita Hamad ’02. “I guess I really didn’t think about them or look to them.”

Mobilizing and Compromising

From the early days of the movement against war in Iraq, students took up placards while faculty were preoccupied with petitions.

In December, HIPJ began mobilization efforts. HIPJ was formed on Sept. 11, 2001 to oppose wars of retribution, and it never adopted a new platform aimed at protesting the war in Iraq.

“We didn’t want to restrict membership,” Chew says. “We never issued an official statement representative of everyone.”

Chew says that the case against war was strong enough that educating students against the war was less pressing than mobilization.

One of HIPJ’s first moves in December was to organize a walkout to be held on the first day of war.

More than 1,000 students walked out of their classes on March 20 to rally in Harvard Yard.

But the walkout was the culmination of smaller demonstrations Harvard students and been participating in for months.

On Feb. 18, about 50 Harvard students traveled to New York City over President’s Day weekend to participate in a 100,000-strong anti-war rally.

By mid-March, as the likelihood of military action increased, HIPJ organized an “Emergency Anti-War Rally” along with four other student groups.

Drawing a crowd of 350 outside the Science Center, the March 12 rally featured folk singers and speeches. The rally was viewed by many as a sign that the movement was gaining visibility.

While several faculty members attended these rallies, they deferred to student organizers, making a few guest speeches but never planning or advertising the rallies.

“Students had the lead in the activism department,” Harris says. “We had lots more to lose with our families and things. No [professor] was ready to go to jail.”

Chew says professors’ reluctance to engage directly in protest did not go unnoticed.