Students swarm field at Harvard-Yale football game, chant ‘OK boomer’ in climate change protest

Hundreds of climate change protesters swarmed the field during halftime of the annual Harvard-Yale football game Saturday, delaying the action for nearly an hour as students chanted “OK boomer” and as police made arrests and issued summonses for disorderly conduct.

Players from both teams joined demonstrators on the field in a showstopping escalation of long-running campaigns for the two schools to stop investing their endowments in fossil fuels and forgive Puerto Rican debt. Protesters sat at the 50-yard line at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn., arms linked and chanting, as banners echoed calls for urgent change championed by lawmakers and activists around the country: “This is an emergency,” one sign read.

The protest quickly became a cause celebre among political figures, but its disruptive tactics were divisive. A Yale spokesperson expressed disapproval of the interruption, while a Harvard representative said the school “respectfully disagree[s] with divestment activists” over how to confront climate change.

At the demonstration’s peak, 500 people were on the field, protesters said. Forty-two people were issued misdemeanor summonses, according to Yale officials.

“This is an absolutely thrilling experience, and we’re very excited about the support that it garnered from all over,” Sidney Carlson-White, a Yale student and Fossil Free Yale spokesman, said in a phone interview.