Tuesday, May 27, 2014

NYU's Promises about conditions workers face in building its Abu Dhabi NYU Campus

Note from one of my most senior professors at NYU:
Dear Friends, Colleagues, Alumni Family and Family,

I'm sure your attention has already been drawn to this article in today's, Monday May 19th New York Times article on the conditions under which workers are forced to labor in the construction of NYU's campus in Abu Dhabi.


This is the week in which thousands of our students will graduate from NYU, thousands of families will celebrate the achievements of their children and relatives, hundreds of thousands of our NYU alumni will look to NYU for ethical leadership here at home in Greenwich Village, in NYC, the United States and in our Global Network University. What human rights reality do we of NYU truly represent, what human and civil rights reality do we of NYU want to project at home and to the world? What message do we want to send to those of our families who began their lives as immigrant workers and have worked so hard their entire lives to afford to attend NYU to attain an NYU education and degree and go out into the world with the imprimatur from New York University?

What responsibility do all of us have to be aware, make our opinions known and  make our  commitments known on the reality of working conditions for those human beings building of our NYU Campus in the oil rich Middle East? What actions on behalf of the workers building the campus known as NYU Abu Dhabi are required of those of us who require, nay demand humane working conditions for ourselves and those who build a major NYU Global campus in the vexed Middle East?

Those of us affiliated with New York University must now act on a global stage. 
Laurin Raiken

http://www.gallatin.nyu.edu/academics/faculty/lr2.html