Rallies Set: Sept 29 for Higher Education – Oct 2 “What is Yale For”

Public higher education professionals who seek fairness and justice on the job have called a state-wide rally and march on Wednesday, September 29 at 4 pm from the New Haven Green to Gateway Community College. They are asking for support in contract negotiations for faculty and support staff at community colleges, state universities and the University of Connecticut (Uconn) facing workforce reductions, increased workloads and other cutbacks. The march is organized by the Recovery for All Coalition and the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC).

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Rev. Scott Marks, director of New Haven Rising, issued a call to rally on Saturday October 2 at 1 pm at the corner of Propsect and Grove Streets in New Haven. On that day, Yale University is publicly launching a fundraising campaign of $6 billion. An email announcing the launch asked “What are you for?”. The movement will respond by returning to Prospect and Grove Sts where we held our street painting action and car caravan in May, to ask Yale to answer its own question. “What is Yale For?”

As our community endures a summer of heartbreaking violence, Yale University is still accepting a massive tax break from New Haven, and has not yet honored a community hiring commitment due in April 2019. The tax break means fewer city services and higher taxes for home owners. The failure in its hiring commitments means many more households suffered through this pandemic without good jobs.

 This summer, over 1,000 people left voicemails with Yale leaders to ask for a better partnership based on respect. Yale University still has not engaged the community in a way that would bring hope and justice to a city suffering from over eighty years of segregated development and the devastating, unequal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. New Haven is still forced to pay for tax breaks for buildings that were named to honor individuals who or whose family owned enslaved people and contemporary wealthy donors who gave political contributions to leaders who sought to overturn the last election. It’s time for this partnership to change. Our community deserves respect.