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Harvard College cut course assistant pay in some departments by $2 and has begun reducing teaching assistant positions for undergraduates amid University-wide budget cuts.
At least 60 CAs in the Math department, who had been paid $23 per hour for jobs with in-class work, were informed in August that their new wage for the fall would be $21 – part of a position reclassification initiative by the Office of Undergraduate Education. Several Physics department CAs also had their fall pay docked by $2.
Two departments — Math and Computer Science — that regularly hire dozens of undergraduate course assistants to staff classes, also cut back on their CA hiring for the fall. Computer Science 50 professor David J. Malan ’99 wrote in a statement that the changes were due in part to budget cuts, and Upper-Level Math CA Coordinator Oliver Knill wrote in an email to CAs that the department was “under lots of pressure to reduce the number of CAs as budget cuts are everywhere.”
A University spokesperson declined to comment for this article.
The change allows Harvard to reduce spending on teaching assistants after it announced a University-wide hiring freeze and paused merit-based wage increases for all faculty and staff. Several Harvard schools have also laid off staff as Harvard battles with the Trump administration over federal funding.
Top Harvard officials said the combined effects of federal funding cuts and a new 8 percent endowment tax will cost the University up to $1 billion every year.
Undergraduate teaching assistants are represented by Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers. Their current contract establishes a minimum wage of $21 for all hourly student workers, though some student workers who provide in-class and lab section assistance have typically been paid $2 more.
Harvard Law School student Justin P. S. McMahan ’21, co-chair of the union’s contract enforcement committee, said HGSU-UAW plans to pursue a grievance over the pay change. Though the changes do not bring pay below the contract minimum, McMahan said they merit a grievance because the University did not provide notice of the updated pay guidance or attempt to bargain with the union over it.
“Unless the University comes to the table in good faith and it’s like, ‘Hey, we’ve made a mistake,’ then otherwise, we’re going to go forward and file this grievance, because it’s clear that they have violated the contract,” he said.
Sudden changes to employment agreements for unionized workers are particularly contentious because HSGU-UAW is currently negotiating its third contract. The National Labor Relations Act bars employers from unilaterally changing wages during the course of bargaining for a union contract.
The OUE issued guidance to departments in April that CAs designated as CA Twos — those with in-class and lab section duties, per the union contract — would receive $23 per hour for the fall because new salary rates were under negotiation with the union.
But prospective CAs for Harvard’s introductory math courses then received an email from head teaching assistant Yana O. Hubyak ’24 in May announcing their reclassification to CA Ones by the OUE, dropping their pay to $21.
Physics CA Grace Zhou ’27 had previously been classified as a CA Two and paid $23 per hour, even though her position did not include in-class or lab section duties. But following the OUE-directed reclassifications, she found that her pay had decreased to $21 an hour for the fall semester, even though her responsibilities did not change.
The reclassification also created several contradictory work assignments. At least two student workers reclassified as CA Ones with $21 hourly pay still had in-class duties — a CA Two responsibility — listed as possible responsibilities in their employment letter’s position description.
Beyond pay cuts, departments have also winnowed overall CA hires. According to Knill, the total number of upper-level CAs for math courses declined by close to 25 percent from last year.
Economics 1011A professor Edward L. Glaeser said he plans to keep 12 CAs hired last semester for the course, but will reduce workers’ hours and pay them out of his personal research fund. He said nine of the CAs will only work roughly 10 hours per semester, instead of the usual 10 to 12 hours per week.
Harvard’s flagship CS 50 course also reduced its undergraduate teaching staff from 37 in 2024 to 25 this fall. According to Malan, the drop was partially caused by budget shortfalls, in addition to enrollment projections and a new CS 50 AI tool reducing students’ reliance on course support staff.
Adam C. Hesterberg, the Computer Science department’s associate dean of undergraduate studies, said the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences prioritized teaching fellow positions for graduate students whose research funding had been canceled, reducing undergraduate worker openings.
Amid the changes, Knill wrote that the reductions have caused him to reconsider his position managing the program.
“I personally grieve the situation, so much that I even suggested a few weeks ago to have somebody else take over the upperlevel CA coordination,” Knill wrote.
—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.
—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at amann.mahajan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.
