We, the Faculty Assembly of Lesley University, join our voices with the local and national demonstrators of the Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Boston movement to strongly endorse principles of equity, equality, compassion, and pluralism.

The economic crisis caused by corporate and bank greed, incompetence, and callous risk-taking led to a deep recession that continues to have a harmful impact on millions of people. It is a crisis that is unnecessary, preventable, and unconscionable. Rather than taking steps to restore health and fairness to a damaged economic and social system, we have seen dead-end political positioning and the constraint of meaningful democratic dialog.

As university faculty we have a responsibility to our students, to the university, and to the broader society. It is our job to facilitate critical analysis of socio-political and economic policies to understand how communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately harmed while more affluent communities are privileged. Our responsibility compels us to stand for principles of social and economic justice and to call for a society that cherishes and sustains multiculturalism, equity, equality, compassion, and the fair distribution of wealth. We join with others across the country to call for good public education, access to quality health care, affordable housing, and a national commitment to protect and care for people who are vulnerable.

In recent decades we have seen a widening gap between rich and poor; we have witnessed the struggle of our students who often do not have adequate access to ever-more-limited resources of financial aid; we hear of those talented graduates who are among the 9% of the unemployed; we know family members who have lost homes to foreclosure or who have not had adequate health care for themselves or their children; we have seen the dismantling of unions and other venues that give every-day, working people a voice.  Our commitment to good education, vibrant arts, and emotional well-being is constantly challenged by budget cuts that take a tragic toll on the most vulnerable people and communities.

We applaud the Occupy movement around the world for inviting non-violent engagement through careful and disciplined consensus-building, community-building, and diversity-building efforts in the service of equality, opportunity, and equity.

Endorsements:
Lesley University Faculty Assembly, 2011-2012
Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED), 2011-2012
Lesley University Diversity Council
Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences Diversity Committee
American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Lesley University Chapter

Contact: 617.701.6224 | occupy.harvard@gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Occupy Harvard Joins the Occupy Movement

10 November 2011, Cambridge, MA—At 10:30 pm on Wednesday, November 9, hundreds of Harvard students and affiliates put down tents to begin an occupation of Harvard Yard. Currently, thirty tents occupy the Yard in solidarity with the global Occupy movement. Earlier Wednesday, around 800 Harvard students, faculty, staff, and community members gathered in a rally, general assembly, and march to Occupy Harvard. Harvard is a diverse community that includes both the 1% and the 99%; we occupy here in solidarity with the global Occupy movement and with Occupy Boston.

We are Occupy Harvard. We want a university for the 99%, not a corporation for the 1%.

We are here in solidarity with the Occupy movement to protest the corporatization of higher education, epitomized by Harvard University.

We see injustice in the 180:1 ratio between the compensation of Harvard’s highest-paid employee—the head of internal investments at Harvard Management Company—and the lowest-paid employee, an entry-level custodial worker. We see injustice in Harvard’s adoption of corporate efficiency measures such as job outsourcing. We see injustice in African land grabs that displace local farmers and devastate the environment. We see injustice in Harvard’s investment in private equity firms such as HEI Hotels and Resorts, which profits off the backbreaking labor of a non-union immigrant workforce. We see injustice in Harvard’s lack of financial transparency and its prevention of student and community voice in these investments.

We stand in solidarity with Occupy Boston and the other occupations throughout the country. We stand in solidarity with students at other universities who suffer crushing debt burdens and insufficient resources. We stand in solidarity with the students who occupied Massachusetts Hall one decade ago, and we continue their pursuit of justice for workers. We stand in solidarity with all those in Boston and beyond who clamor for equity. We are the 99%.

A university for the 99% must settle a just contract with Harvard’s custodial workers. A university for the 99% must adopt a new transparency policy, including disclosure of Harvard’s current investments as well as a commitment to not reinvest in HEI Hotels & Resorts or in land-grabbing hedge funds like Emergent Asset Management. Further,

• A university for the 99% would offer academic opportunities to assess responses to socioeconomic inequality outside the scope of mainstream economics.
• A university for the 99% would implement debt relief for students who suffer from excessive loan burdens.
• A university for the 99% would commit to increasing the diversity of Harvard’s graduate school faculty and students.
• A university for the 99% would end the privilege enjoyed by legacies in the Harvard admissions process.
• A university for the 99% would implement a policy requiring faculty to declare conflicts of interest.

Our statement of principles is subject to change by the Occupy Harvard General Assemblies.

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