This story should worry everyone who cares about democracy, society and wants academics to play a larger role in public debates. Anthropologists Carole Vance and Kim Hopper, longtime professors at Columbia University’s School of Public Health got fired without compensation after more than 25 years of distinguished service. The school adopted business model according to which faculty who don’t bring in at least 80% of the salaries in grant money must go – regardless of the quality of their teaching or the impact of their scholarship.
Carole Vance and Kim Hopper’s extensive research is widely recognized and cited. Their voices as Public Intellectuals are highly influential in national and global arenas whereby applying their expertise and decades of field studies, they are bringing about change in crucial issues. Professor Vance is one of the world’s most important scholar-activists in public health, women’s rights, human trafficking and more. Professor Hopper is one of the leading American specialist in homelessness and mental health, a leading advocate against poverty and for homeless people.
When money is THE measurement in science and cultural life, we all end up impoverished. BUT, while Columbia University has raised a whopping $6.1 billion in its most recent capital campaign– we MUST ask ourselves: is it really about money? or is it about shutting down powerful voices that undermine the capital and the dominant order? Please Condemn by Liking, Sharing, and signing the petition.

See more here and here // The petition