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The Fordham 14: Some of Fordham's Best

It is wonderful news that President McShane has reversed his position on the unionization of contingent faculty at Fordham because, he notes, it is "the right thing to do." In his announcement, he recognized that "organized labor has deep roots in Catholic social justice teachings." 

Social justice is one of the pillars in the university's mission and social justice is what motivated a group of students to rally and protest in support of those of their professors on April 27. These students are an extraordinary group who are in many ways the very best and most dedicated student-scholars that Fordham has nurtured. They are honors students who have undertaken and excelled in the most challenging intellectual paths we offer, and they are award winners whose writings have dazzled their professors. 

Above all, they are students who, through their actions, strove to embody the Jesuit ideal of "men and women for others." Their collective pursuit of social justice drove each of them to advocate on behalf of faculty, for collective bargaining rights and health care benefits that did not affect them directly, but were matters of life and death for others.  That the risk they took included an unforeseen and unplanned clash with Public Safety Officers who responded to their protest with unexpected force is not a negation of the students' good will or passion. 

In acknowledgement of these students' individual excellence and their extraordinary courage, resilience, and passion for social justice, over an issue whose merits the university's president has now recognized, these students should be honored at their commencement exercises, not sanctioned. In addition, those who are not graduating this weekend should be allowed to spend their remaining years here still engaged in issues and causes that the faculty of Fordham University take pride in teaching them to address.

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