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04/30/01
To the campus community and community at large,
Fr. Kolvenbach summarizes his address as asking “who do you stand with?
What do you stand for?” It has become clear this year that
Sodexho-Marriott and their parent company, Sodexho Alliance, have direct
ties to the private prison industry. Due to the fact that the private
prison industry abuses the human rights of prisoners and creates an
incentive for the further incarceration of members of our society,
Xavier University does not stand with such a company and will terminate
Sodexho-Marriott’s contract at the end of the spring semester of 2001.
This past year, dedicated food service workers have been subjected to
anti-union videos, censorship, and other anti-labor practices carried
out by Sodexho-Marriott employers. To prevent any further occurrence of
anti-labor practices, Xavier University will add a card check/
neutrality agreement into the request for proposals and contract with
the next food service provider. In addition, Xavier University will
continue the work of the Labor Rights Committee, the Students of the
“Not With Our Money” Campaign, and others by taking positive steps to
ensure worker justice in relation to all aspects of Xavier’s business.
As a Jesuit University, we are called to teach our students to be “men
and women for others.” Santa Clara Alumnus, Leon Panetta said “The
fulfillment of Jesuit education is not just learning about justice, it
is doing justice.” Jesuits are called to live as an Ignatian example,
to take the side of the oppressed, and ensure the “preferential option
for the poor.” The misery and misfortune of people isn't an appropriate
object from which someone else should profit. Private prisons, like
those owned by Sodexho Alliance, partially funded by university food
service contracts with Sodexho-Marriott, create an incentive to imprison
and perpetuate trends in our society that we must speak out against such
as laws that target people of color, that institute mandatory minimum
sentences, and that treat prison as a solution rather than a last
resort. When running a Jesuit university, “...commitment to faith and
justice cannot be something peripheral or added on, but has to be
intrinsic to its central activities, part of its very essence...(Joseph
Daoust, S.J.)” Therefore we must go beyond the education of our students
and reflection upon our values in regards to justice. We must put our
faith into action in all aspects of university affairs, especially when
evaluating those companies with which we contract. Joseph Daoust, S.J.
has said, “...every Catholic university has a responsibility to
contribute concretely, as a university, to the progress of a society
toward...justice.” By terminating Xavier University’s contract with
Sodexho-Marriott, Xavier University is taking concrete steps to foster a
just society. When describing a “university that does justice,” William
C. Spohn stated, “colleges and universities have to act justly in their
internal policies if they are to model the justice they want to teach.”
Xavier University is doing just that. I realize, like Claire Gaudiani,
President of Connecticut College that, “In this time of unprecedented
prosperity, universities must accept their social responsibility or
future generations will look back on them with ‘anger and disgust.’
I would like to thank the students and all those involved in bringing
this issue to my attention and I encourage my fellow university
administrators to deeply consider refusing to contract with companies
with ties to the private prison industry, like Sodexho-Marriott. As
Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. has said “Jesuit universities have
stronger and different reasons, than many other academic and research
institutions, for addressing the actual world as it unjustly exists and
for helping to reshape it in the light of the Gospel.” As long as
Jesuit universities continue doing business with institutions that
detract from the creation of a just world, such as Sodexho-Marriott, we
cannot fully live out our mission.
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