An online petition has been launched calling for the Board of Trustees of the General Theological Seminary to reinstate eight striking faculty members

An online petition has been launched calling for the Board of Trustees of the General Theological Seminary to reinstate eight striking faculty members who were dismissed on 30 September 2014. The petition, which continues to solicit the endorsement of those outraged by the actions of the dean and board, further states its signatories will not boycott General Theological Seminary and will not give guest lectures or public addresses at the school until the eight are reinstated.

The statement, endorsed by several hundred academics, clergy and supporters of the eight ousted faculty members states:

Whereas the right to strike is fundamental to all employees;

Whereas the eight faculty members in question did not submit their resignations in their letter to the General Theological Seminary Board of Trustees, dated September 17, 2014

Whereas these same eight faculty members in their letter of September 26, 2014 expressed their intention not “to teach, attend meetings, or participate in common worship until pressing issues at the Seminary are addressed;”

Whereas this intention did not constitute or imply that they had resigned or threatened to resign from their academic appointments;

Whereas the Board of Trustees, in their letter of September 30, 2014, falsely asserted that the eight faculty members had submitted their resignations;

Whereas the faculty’s intention, as communicated in their letter of September 26, does constitute a strike;

It is resolved that we endorse and honor a boycott of the General Theological Seminary. It is also resolved that we support the right of workers everywhere to strike as a means of addressing work-related grievances;

We, the undersigned faculty, independent scholars, and clergy, will not give guest lectures or provide public speeches at the General Theological Seminary. We encourage all signatories of this statement to use their own judgment as to what other forms of protest and boycott they wish to employ on a case-by-case basis. We ask that faculty and administrators honor the boycott until the eight faculty whose positions were terminated are reinstated to their former positions. We furthermore ask that the Seminary vow that no retaliation or other negative actions, explicit or implicit, direct or indirect, be visited upon the supporters of those eight faculty members amongst the staff or student body at the General Theological Seminary.