November, 25 2017, 01:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Bruce Mirken, Greenlining Institute Media Relations Director
Mick Mulvaney Appointment as CFPB Director Disastrous for Consumers, Greenlining Institute Says
 Legally Questionable Appointee Will Push to Gut Consumer Protections, Spell Disaster for Communities of Color
OAKLAND, Calif.
President Trump's legally dubious appointment Friday of Mick Mulvaney to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, would be disastrous for U.S. consumers, The Greenlining Institute said today. Mulvaney has called the bureau "a sick, sad joke," and "the very worst kind of government entity."
The appointment is expected to set up a legal battle, as outgoing CFPB director Richard Cordray had attempted to name his successor hours earlier by naming Leandra English to the position of deputy director, who would normally assume the top job should it become vacant.
"This continues President Trump's pattern of appointing agency heads whose express intent is to destroy the office they lead," said Greenlining Institute Economic Equity Director Teddy Ky-Nam Miller. "Mulvaney will be as big a gift to Wall Street grifters as Scott Pruitt has been to polluters. Leandra English is the right person to lead the CFPB. As a dedicated public servant who has spent her career making federal service delivery more efficient and effective, Ms. English has the capacity, experience, and skill set to serve as acting CFPB director until an appropriate nominee is put forward by the White House and the Senate votes to confirm him or her."
The CFPB was created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law after it became clear that predatory, deceptive lending practices played a huge role in the subprime mortgage crisis that triggered the Great Recession. Much of the worst activity specifically targeted communities of color and low-income borrowers.
"We supported CFPB's creation because our communities got hit worst by predatory lending, and literally no one in government was looking out for financial consumers," said Greenlining Institute President Orson Aguilar. "CPFB's first director, Richard Cordray, championed ordinary Americans, obtaining literally billions in relief for people who'd been gouged. This appointment makes clear that President Trump wants to leave consumers defenseless against being ripped off by shady financial firms."
Greenlining is the solution to redlining. We advance economic opportunity and empowerment for people of color through advocacy, community and coalition building, research, and leadership development.
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Professors, Speakers Cut Ties With Universities Over Police Crackdowns on Protests
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Repercussions of American universities' crackdowns on student protesters are becoming increasingly evident this week as faculty members, public speakers, and others who collaborate with higher education institutions announced they would cut ties with schools that have repressed students' constitutional right to protest against Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza.
On Thursday, Dipali Mukhopadhyay, a former Columbia University professor who is still affiliated with the school's Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, announced on social media that she had written to Columbia President Minouche Shafik to ask that her "current affiliation with the university be removed."
"I have watched with horror as your administration has responded with breathtaking incompetence and inhumanity to peaceful student protest against genocidal violence ongoing in Gaza," wrote Mukhopadhyay. "As a teacher and a scholar, I can no longer justify my association with this institution so long as you are at the helm."
Mukhopadhyay's letter to the prestigious Ivy League school came two days after the New York Police Department forcibly removed student protesters from Hamilton Hall, which they had occupied to demand that Columbia divest from companies that contract with the Israeli government. The officers entered the building—which the students had renamed Hind's Hall in honor of a six-year-old girl who was killed by Israeli forces in January—with guns drawn, and reportedly used tear gas to disperse demonstrators outside.
On Wednesday, End Climate Silence founder Genevieve Guenther announced she was canceling her scheduled keynote address at Columbia's symposium on climate and language, which she was supposed to give Friday.
Guenther expressed sorrow that she would not move forward with the talk, but said that being associated with Columbia "at this political moment" was equivalent to ignoring the school's "authoritarian response to protest."
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Guenther added that she was "deeply ashamed to be associated with this university" as a Columbia graduate, and that she "would FEAR to send [her] son to a place that turns the NYPD in full riot gear on students occupying a building that has been occupied many times before and survived just fine."
Also in New York, Deborah Archer, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, said this week that she would no longer be speaking at the City University of New York School of Law's (CUNY Law) commencement ceremony due to the school's decision not to allow students to give speeches at the event.
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As the school community learned of the prohibition on student commencement speakers, eight students filed a lawsuit last week, and on Monday, Archer said she was withdrawing from her speaking engagement.
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Two renowned authors also informed University of Southern California (USC) on Sunday that they will not speak at upcoming events due to the school's deployment of armed officers to arrest 93 student protesters in recent weeks and its decision to keep 2024 valedictorian Asna Tabassum, a Muslim supporter of Palestinian rights, from delivering a commencement address.
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Zhang and Noble, who had been scheduled to speak at USC's doctoral and master's degree commencement ceremonies, called on speakers at the graduations of 38 USC satellite campuses "to join us by signing this letter; withdrawing from USC events; and supporting USC students, as well as thousands of students nationwide who deserve respect, not arrest and punishment by their own universities, for courageously speaking truth to power."
Last week, more than 2,100 academics from across the globe signed a statement expressing solidarity with student and faculty protesters and supporting an "academic and cultural boycott" of the school.
Former New Yorker editor Erin Overbey on Wednesday called on "all journalists of conscience" to boycott the Pulitzer Prizes, which are administered by Columbia and are set to be awarded next week. The NYPD threatened student journalists and Columbia School of Journalism Dean Jelani Cobb with arrest during its raid of Hamilton Hall this week.
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While the Pulitzer Prize Board on Thursday put out a statement praising "the tireless efforts of student journalists across our nation's college campuses, who are covering protests and unrest in the face of great personal and academic risk," it faced criticism for using passive voice when noting that the NYPD "was called onto campus" at Columbia.
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- Allow patients with urgent medical cases to safely access critical health services or leave.
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