THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

January 10, 2012 Speaker Christine Quinn City Hall New York, NY 10007 Dear Speaker Quinn: Thank you for the $5,000 stipend for my position as Chair of the Higher Education Committee, but I will again be declining to personally accept it. My work within the committee is of primary importance to me, and I am grateful to your office for the support given in examining critical topics such as graduation rates at CUNY community colleges and programs supporting the education of veterans. However, I feel that there is a cause more worthy of the economic support this stipend will provide. This is why I am respectfully requesting that you donate the stipend to the Occupy Wall Street general assembly. In the past few months, the OWS movement has captivated the world by placing social and economic justice into the center of the global conversation. In our city, tens of thousands of New Yorkers visited the movement's temporary headquarters at Zuccotti Park to show their support. Millions more approve of the movement, as demonstrated in repeated opinion polls. Occupy Wall Street has become the voice of the working and middle class not only in this city, but across the planet, and for this reason is deserving of this money. Thank you again for your support of my work with the Higher Education Committee; I look forward to a productive year working together with your office to examine and support higher education in New York City.

Sincerely,

Ydanis Rodriguez Council Member, District10