Lie #1. Higher wages hurts workers. I don't think I even have to comment on this one, but it's amazing how often this tired old horse is trotted out.
Lie #2. "Harvard is a charitable institution." Like hell. Moreover, note the translation: giving workers a living wage = charity.
Lie #3, "Protesters would divert benefactor's funds to serve their own social goals." Translation: the ONLY class that has the right to serve their own social goals is the administration and benefactors of Harvard: not the students; never the students.
Lie #4. Occupying the provost's office denies each "group's right to disagree." Here an overt economic policy involving money derived from tuition and humanitarian-based donations is being treated as a question of individual opinion about, say, fashion.
It does not surprise me that an academic should argue anything as stupid as this. Having worked in acadmia, I can attest to the general aggregate sheepish quality of thought. Remember, these people spend their entire lives speaking either to captive audiences (students) or each other.
And, finally, on a historical note. The book "A Nation in Turmoil" describing the depression in the U.S. notes the fact that Harvard fired ALL of its cleaning women during the depression and replaced them with men in order to save 2 cents an hour. The women were covered by a minimum wage law whereas the men were not.
Fuck Harvard.
Joanna