To the Student Workers Union of Columbia University
From Jessica Sell Chambers, Tsahia Hobson, Marissa Hoechstetter, and Evelyn Yang

As alumni and former employees and patients of Columbia University, we stand in solidarity with the Student Workers Union’s courageous efforts to secure a fair and equitable contract. As former patients of the university’s disgraced gynecologist and convicted serial sexual abuser Robert Hadden, we share the union’s commitment to transform Columbia into an organization that not only supports justice in theory, but also in action. We wait for the day that Columbia steps up to support and value survivors and reformers rather than protect and promote abusers and those who would maintain the status quo. 

The student workers’ struggle is not dissimilar to our own efforts to affect change. The administration's behavior is reprehensible, but not unsurprising. Institutional environments like Columbia’s, whether classrooms on the 116th Street campus or exam rooms in a midtown medical center, provide ample opportunity for those with power to abuse it. This complicated entanglement of administrators and the self-preserving policies they make serve only to limit institutional liability, not protect constituents. It has become clear that this institution cannot continue to investigate itself when abuses are brought forth. Individuals who deserve justice should not be retraumatized by placing them in front of an administration who repeatedly fails to act swiftly and justly.  

It has been a constant uphill battle to hold Columbia accountable for the harm they caused us. In December, the university announced a settlement with a limited number of Hadden survivors. To us, it revealed the institution’s apathy towards the remaining survivors -  glorifying themselves while leaving the majority of Hadden’s victims in the dark and without closure. We urge Columbia to stop being divisive, coercive, and abusive and start treating all survivors with dignity and respect. 

You can tell a lot about an institution by the way they treat their most vulnerable constituents. Abused while you were pregnant? Here, sign this NDA! Not making a living wage? Too bad, teach this class for the prestige! Columbia is considered a leader in many disciplines and has ample resources – people, money, technology, and more –  to create an environment of trust, equity, and safety. Yet, it refuses to do so without hundreds – perhaps thousands of people taking to the streets protesting, losing their wages amidst a pandemic, and having to publicly share personal hardships and traumas. 

Creating the change we want to see for survivors has become the endeavor of our lifetime. Standing together and fighting for what is humane and what is just will always be the right choice - a choice that will make the world better for those who come after. 

So, to the Student Workers of Columbia University, we see you, we hear you, and we stand with you. Your courage, perseverance, and dedication are an inspiration. Columbia’s shameful responses and harmful actions do not go unnoticed, nor will they be forgotten. Continue asking for what you know is right. We will too.