SSA in Solidarity with Student Tuition Strike

We, the workers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, stand in solidarity with students participating in the tuition strike led by the Columbia-Barnard chapter of YDSA. We have witnessed first-hand the University’s callous response to hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. As members of the 1199SEIU Support Staff Association at Columbia, we watched while our fellow union members got sick and the University broadcast a message of compassion and calm that often betrayed workers’ reality. Our members have struggled to secure adequate childcare, fought for access to necessary PPE, and dealt with repeated violations of public health recommendations. It is from this vantage that we view the demands made by students: Columbia must recognize its responsibility to aiding those who contribute so much to its success.

While other Universities have instituted a tuition reduction in response to current economic conditions, Columbia University has failed to offer adequate relief to students strained by exorbitant tuition costs. This failure represents a refusal to acknowledge the harm sky-rocketing tuition costs have levied against generations of students and Columbia University’s role in perpetuating that damage. We find the student’s demand of a 10% decrease in tuition costs and 10% increase in financial aid a modest remedy to an economic injury brought about by the University’s failure to address seriously the impact of the pandemic on student’s financial well-being.

Rather than put their substantial endowment to use supporting students through this difficult time, Columbia instead prioritizes expansion into West Harlem, leading development projects that will displace tens of thousands of residents either through seizure via eminent domain or through rising housing costs. This expansion not only directly harms residents in the surrounding community, furthering a legacy of racial injustice wrought by the University, it has the added effect of expanding the reach of CU Public Safety officers – thus increasing police presence in the area.

The demands made by the students insist that Columbia act with greater responsibility and responsiveness to its community, including not just students and residents of West Harlem and Washington Heights, but also as it pertains to the climate. With the designation last year of a new Climate School, the University signaled it recognizes the profound threat of climate change, yet continues to profit off of investments in fossil fuels. This contradiction is a moral failing, rightly pointed out by the students, alum, and faculty in multiple petitions calling for a complete divestment. Yet Columbia has failed to take the demands and concerns of its community to heart. Columbia must respect the referendum votes passed by students demanding divestment from assets that violate the university’s declared values and mission..

Finally, we recognize the struggle of our brothers and sisters throughout campus fighting for recognition and a fair contract. The right to a union and a life of dignity is one which every worker at Columbia deserves. We stand by student-workers in their struggle for better working conditions and benefits. 

WRITTEN BY ASHLEY MENSING | SSA DELEGATE