FOSSIL FREE NORTHWESTERN
CAMPAIGN UPDATE:
November 4, 2015
Since last spring, Fossil Free NU has met with Northwestern's Board of Trustees twice to present our case for fossil fuel divestment. In June, our team presented to Mr. T. Bondurant French (chair of the Investment Committee) and Mr. John Eggemeyer (Investment Committee member). We then presented in July to the entire Investment Subcommittee of the Board, which makes decisions about which cases will be heard in the full Investment Committee. These presentations were met with some pushback, but led to productive conversations.
This fall, FFNU requested a more discussion-based meeting with the Trustees -- this time with the full Investment Committee and for a longer duration. Our request was denied on the grounds that the committee did not feel that previous presentations were compelling enough to warrant future meetings. They are not interested in pursuing fossil fuel divestment, although that decision has never been formally confirmed by a vote. Fossil Free Northwestern strongly believes that continued dialogue with the Board of Trustees is necessary for the advancement of our campaign and the continued fight against climate change. Although we are appreciative of the unprecedented access we were given to the Board of Trustees over the summer, we will not accept that conversations about divestment are closed.
Our team is currently writing a letter to the Board urging them to reconsider meeting with us and is in the process of planning a demonstration at their on-campus meeting on November 20. We want to use the advancements we made this summer as fuel for our movement, and we will continue to press for open and transparent dialogue with our Trustees.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 3, 2015
Fossil Free Northwestern Delivers Hundreds of Letters in Support of Divestment
Fossil Free Northwestern-- along with over a dozen student leaders from endorsing organizations and a handful of faculty members-- marched to the Investment Office on June 3 to deliver 300 letters supporting coal divestment.
The group, which included representatives from Associated Student Government, Students for Ecological and Environmental Development, Real Food at NU and others, read a statement to Chief Investment Officer Will McLean describing the necessity of climate action and calling on him and the Board to listen to the voices of their constituents presented in the letters. Fossil Free coordinated the action as a way to show student support for divestment before their meeting with the Board on June 15.
The statement the group read is available below, followed by the text of the letters that were delivered.
We are the members of Fossil Free NU, along with leaders from students, faculty and staff across campus. We are representatives of hundreds of Northwestern community members, and we are here because climate change is happening, because it is threatening people’s lives every day, and because we and our children will suffer the deadly consequences of inaction. We believe divestment from coal is an essential step if Northwestern hopes to stand on the right side of history and push for the political and social change we need now to tackle this global crisis. Each of us, along with hundreds of others, has signed one of these letters to urge Northwestern’s Board of Trustees to act. We hope they will take our voices seriously and remember the overwhelming support of the Northwestern community for coal divestment at their meeting with Fossil Free NU on June 15. The Board’s decision has the power to help shape the future of human beings and this planet. We believe the right decision is clear, and hope the Board will see this as well. Thank you.
....
Dear Mr. French and the members of the Investment Subcommittee,
I am writing to you as a member of the Northwestern community in support of the Fossil Free Northwestern coal divestment movement. Northwestern’s endowment directly impacts students, faculty and staff, and because of this, I believe we deserve a say in where that money is invested. Continuing to invest in the coal companies that are polluting our planet, contributing to climate change, and harming people worldwide does not align with my values as a member of this community.
While I and others at Northwestern do what we can to be a part of the solution to climate change, we recognize that there are people and institutions whose voices are louder than ours. Northwestern--and your committee--has the potential to speak out more powerfully than any of us can individually, and divestment is one of the most influential ways to do so. Foundations, national governments and our own peer institutions have already taken this step; now is the time for Northwestern to prove its place among these leaders, setting an example for others to follow and proving that this University is wholly committed to sustainability and moral leadership.
Although you recently notified Fossil Free NU that your committee has been considering alternative approaches to addressing climate change, I urge you to reopen the dialogue around divestment. While there are many aspects to solving this issue, divestment from coal corporations is an essential part of the solution. As a member of the community you serve, I hope you will take my voice into consideration and respect what I have to say as you move forward.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 28, 2015
Fossil Free Northwestern Gains Meeting with Trustees in June
Fossil Free Northwestern has succeeded in securing a meeting with our Board of Trustees Investment Subcommmittee this June. This will be the second time we've met with representatives from the Investment Subcommittee, following a meeting with subcommittee chair T. Bondurant French in November. Since that first meeting, FFNU was informed that the board had voted "no" to coal divestment at their November meeting, which was held the day before Mr. French met with the team. FFNU feels that this vote was unjust, given the fact that we never met with the Board before the vote happened and were not given the chance to present a formal proposal. This time around, we hope to reopen the conversation on divestment and convince the Board to vote again-- hopefully this time with a "yes."
See the letter below that we sent to the Investment Subcommittee to request a meeting:
Dear Mr. French and the members of the Northwestern Board of Trustees:
We, the members of Fossil Free NU (formerly DivestNU), a group of students, faculty, staff, and alumni, are writing to you to ask for a meeting with the members of the Board of Trustees Investment Subcommittee to present our formal proposal for divestment from coal.
Since our last meeting with Mr. French in November, we have made immense progress with the movement at Northwestern. On April 10, Northwestern undergraduates passed a referendum with 74% of votes in favor of the university removing its coal investments. In addition, we have gathered over 250 individual letters signed by students, faculty, staff, and community members urging your committee to reconsider divestment.
Northwestern’s peers and fellow leaders have also continued embracing divestment as a real tactic to confront climate change. Syracuse University, the University of Washington, the University of Oxford, and the New School have all divested from coal or fossil fuels in the past six months, following the lead of Stanford University last May. Officials from the Bank of England warned in March that, “As the world increasingly limits carbon emissions, and moves to alternative energy sources, investments in fossil fuels…may take a huge hit.” And world leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon have clearly advocated for this movement. Northwestern’s strategic plan commits to “solutions for renewable energy and a sustainable environment and to how public policies and economic incentives promote implementation of new technologies and practices.” Yet we continue to invest in coal companies that not only contribute most to the emissions causing climate change, but also actively work to stall the public policies we need to confront this crisis.
Over the past two years, we have cooperated with the Investment Office and the Board, and we have voiced our concerns with the highest level of respect and willingness to negotiate. In November, we thought that this approach had finally begun to bear fruit when the Investment Subcommittee agreed to meet with us. However, while we were told there would be up to six Trustees at the meeting, only Mr. French attended, limiting our ability to have an open dialogue with the Board. Without hearing a thorough case for divestment directly from the stakeholders in the Northwestern community, the Subcommittee could not have voted on coal divestment with a balanced perspective.
To be clear, we greatly appreciate the Board and Mr. McLean’s efforts to promote sustainability by other means--such as through the sustainable investment principles you are discussing-- and we hope to be involved in those discussions moving forward. However, in order to truly commit our endowment to sustainability, divestment is a necessary complement to these actions. The members of Fossil Free NU have assembled a formal proposal for coal divestment to present to the Board of Trustees, which details our comprehensive argument for Northwestern’s divestment from coal. We ask for the opportunity to present our proposal to the entire Board or the entire Investment Subcommittee at your meeting on June 15-16, and then for the Subcommittee to reconsider their stance, given this new information. We are aware of your time constraints and would be willing to accommodate your availability before or after your official meeting if a discussion on the issue of divestment does not fit into the set agenda.
This meeting is not about the ultimate outcome of the vote; it is about making an informed decision and including all people impacted by this decision. If you choose to exclude our voice, it will only validate the growing frustration over the Board of Trustees’ isolation from the concerns of the community they serve. We have been inspired by the action of hundreds of students, faculty, and alumni who have come together and rallied behind divestment at our peer institutions, from Harvard to Swarthmore. The communities at these schools have turned to media and public demonstrations to voice their concerns because their administration has refused to give them a seat at the table. If we at Northwestern see our Board do the same, we see no alternative but to take similar action. This meeting is an opportunity to prove that you respect the Northwestern community and will hear its voice before making a decision that touches all of our futures.
We hope you view the necessity of this meeting in the same way we do. We are confident that the Board shares a common interest with the rest of the Northwestern community in helping the university become a socially responsible leader, and we look forward to finding a path forward that achieves that goal. Thank you for your consideration, and we look forward to speaking with you soon.
Sincerely,
The Members of Fossil Free NU
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 10, 2015
Northwestern Undergraduates Vote in Favor of Coal Divestment in Student Referendum
Evanston, IL—Northwestern University undergraduates passed a referendum vote on coal divestment on April 10, with 74.15 percent of votes in favor of the university removing its coal investments.
Just under 3,000 students—about a third of the undergraduate population—voted in the election, which also included a vote on the student body’s new President and Executive Vice President candidates.
This was the first referendum question on an election ballot in at least five years, according to Dana Leinbach, the Associated Student Government parliamentarian.
Fossil Free Northwestern, the student divestment movement that coordinated the referendum, has been working since 2012 to get Northwestern to divest from coal companies and move toward divestment from all fossil fuels.
Resolutions in favor of coal divestment were passed in the student and faculty senates in early 2013, but the group said they wanted to re-gauge student opinion since then. They said they plan to use the strong statement of student support to escalate their action in the future.
“With this information we’ll have more lobbying power with the Board of Trustees,” said Kerry McFadden, Fossil Free NU’s social media coordinator. “We can use this to ramp up the pressure on them and get some action.”
Fossil Free Northwestern has been meeting with NU’s Chief Investment Officer Will McLean for two years, and gained a first meeting with the head of the Board of Trustees’ investment subcommittee this fall. The team was notified in March that the subcommittee had voted “no” to coal divestment at their fall meeting—the first the group had heard of a vote taking place.
Despite the adversity, Fossil Free Northwestern said having the support of students is a big win.
“I was excited that the student body has shown decisive support for coal divestment, despite the fact that Northwestern has not shown the commitment students desire,” said Alex Kirschner, action coordinator for the group.
In addition to using the referendum to further their cause with administration, Fossil Free Northwestern is planning more interaction with the student body as well.
“We’re just going to have to work on getting the facts out to this 26 percent,” said McFadden.