Second Open Letter to the UNH Administration Regarding David Cote

Published in The New Hampshire

The UNH community has been waiting for the university's public response to my first open letter regarding David Cote. It was published in The New Hampshire two weeks ago in addition to my first piece published over a month ago.

David Cote is the CEO of Honeywell, a UNH alum, and the keynote speaker for our 2011 commencement ceremony.

I expected the administration's silence on this issue. Nevertheless I gave them ample time to contemplate a response. Yet, nothing, not even a generic press release as a token of formality was given. I, however, applaud the administration for its transparency. The arrogance that is represented in David Cote certainly matches the values this administration holds in inviting him here and refusing to participate in dialogue about him. This makes transparent an important value held in this university – arrogance.

I still find it incredible that David Cote is our speaker. He is the one who must inspire, mobilize, and ignite our consciousness. Most critically, he is speaking because our community embraces his ethics.
Most of us do not.

For UNH Inc., however, Cote's values are perfectly in line. His deplorable union record fits well with the union politics going on at UNH. Giving the complicated history of staff unionizing and the negotiations with the faculty union, the message is clear – UNH does not support worker rights to collectively bargain and negotiate their contracts. What is most disturbing is that the student body is completely absent from these negotiations, drenched in apathy as the university staff sits at a limbo, constantly vulnerable.

If that was not enough, student-run publications serve as the administration's anti-union campaign. The editorial published against the faculty union was a clear example of the subversive politics that are beginning to emerge. While I understand that the faculty is better off in terms of social and financial status than staff, the UNH community must not buy into the myth that the faculty is at fault. This is a systemic problem of the administration against its workers, not the faculty against UNH.

These elaborate fabrications that our faculty are living the high-life is absurd. Many work without contracts, many are part-time lecturers, the rest are seeking tenure in an educational system that does not value their scholarship and is interested in making them professional teachers. In other words, how much of their scholarship can they sacrifice to become cannon-spitting-talking-heads for uninterested students.
The faculty is completely obligated to unite with the staff. You must both realize, that outside of a few tokens, faculty are also working-class people.

Another reason Mr. Cote, the defense technology producing, anti-worker, anti-environment reactionary is a great fit for UNH is his companies environmental record. Nothing like having the CEO of one of the most wasteful and toxic corporations come to UNH, the "leader in sustainability." The EPA reports Honeywell as one of the most destructive companies in the United States, ranking 44th in air population and a leader in producing toxic waste. I wonder if UNH is going to market Cote in the sustainability office, perhaps our Department of Environmental Studies can host him for an honorary lecture.

We are all very aware of what sustainability means to this university. It is nothing more than a marketing strategy that is being exploited at the cost of fair-minded students and educators that have an actual concern with sustainability.

You want to be a leader in sustainability? Here is some advice:
1) Do not invite anti-environment neocons to our graduation.
2) Put away the propaganda campaign of biodegradable cups and invest in Hamilton Smith Hall before part of a wall falls on one of our part-time lectures with no health insurance.
3) We do not need cutting edge water fountains, we need playable pianos in the music department. Then again I wonder what our president's priorities are as he attends every hockey game and never attends student performances in the music department.

I hope this makes my position clear about Cote. Perhaps with this letter, the administration might admit how problematic and hypocritical it is to bring this man to our graduation. Then again, this administration is aware of these facts, and will continue to be arrogant.

I ask the administration to respond publicly to this letter and recognize our voices of concern, that above all believe that we are an institution that stands for transparency, honesty and justice.