Friends,
 Thanks to your efforts, Florida Atlantic University has announced that GEO Group -- the second-largest for-profit prison company in the United States -- has withdrawn its offer to name their stadium.
Florida Atlantic students and faculty voiced their opposition to a university institution being named after a prison corporation, and after public pressure and exposure from people like you, GEO Group withdrew its offer, calling it a "distraction to both our organizations."
We agree that incarceration is a distraction to the mission of higher education -- a dangerous distraction that funnels money away from universities and toward the mass imprisonment industry.
 FOR and our allies at the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America took immediate action to speak out against this terrible proposal, supporting a call led by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Other key organizers included the ACLU, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, and the United Methodist Church. In all, more than 70,000 letters to Florida Atlantic President Mary Jane Saunders were written against the move. This helped strengthen an on-campus movement that included student protest sit-ins and an overwhelming vote by the faculty senate to oppose the name. The efforts were part of a broad network called the Stop Owlcatraz Coalition (the university's mascot is the owl), led by Florida Atlantic students.
Your efforts demonstrated opposition to the idea was nationwide, broad, and deep. Thank you!
By standing against GEO Group, we prevented private prisons from taking a step toward cultural acceptance. "A touchdown for human rights," the ACLU called it. What the people of Florida and around the country heard about were the abuses that so often take place at GEO Group prisons, and that's what they'll remember it the next time the issue comes up for a vote in a state legislature.
★ Celebrate this social justice victory ★
- Congratulate the students: Send them a congratulatory Tweet. Let's encourage them as they savor their success!
- Help FOR support more work for social justice: The Fellowship of Reconciliation helps amplify the work of local organizers and religious peace fellowships. Make a special donation today and help us continue to support social justice work.
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Read more about the victory:
Images: Andrew, Students United for Public Education; Michelle Friswell, Flickr (Creative Commons) |
