Banner Drop on 2/27 and Student and Worker Rally on 3/1 – 3/13/17
After fourteen days of lobbying President Brown, he still refused to meet with us so we wrote An Open Letter to President Brown.
Still, after a month of lobbying, he still refused to meet with us. Instead, we were offered a meeting with Dean Elmore. Although we learned some insight into the Board decision-making process during this meeting, we were disheartened to see that our university President doesn’t care about student voices or concerns.
In response, we organized multiple banner drops around campus on Monday, February 27th. We hung a banner from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) windows, one banner in the Questrom School of Business, and a third banner out of the College of Fine Arts (CFA) windows. We hope that these banners helped convey our message to President Brown that the BU administration should respect and listen to student voices.
A few days later, we also co-hosted a BU Resists Trump: Student and Worker Rally. We protested the corporatization of our university and responded to the BU’s refusal to take leadership and fight for the safety of our community members regarding divestment, making BU a Sanctuary Campus, and protecting the rights of BU union workers. The rally united multiple student groups and illustrated the power of student voices and solidarity.
Fighting for our right to a Meeting with President Brown – 2/10/17
On January 31st of 2017, DivestBU student supporters visited the office of President Brown to request a meeting with him. We would like to meet to discuss his recent denial of the demands in our petition we delivered in December. The petition asked that he put fossil fuel divestment on the April Board of Trustees meeting for them to reconsider their September decision to only avoid investing in a portion of the fossil fuel industry (coal and tar sands) and only on a best effort basis. We believe that it is unethical for BU to recognize climate change as a serious issue, and yet only justify the divestment of some of various greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuel energy sources. We believe BU should divest from ALL fossil fuels, including oil and natural gas.
Two days after we requested the meeting with President Brown, his assistant informed us that he would not be meeting with us. Since then, we have been visiting his office every day to request a meeting. We are calling this effort lobbying and intend to continue to visit his office until we are granted a meeting. You can follow updates on how this effort is going at our Facebook page and if you’d like to help lobbying, you can either attend our weekly meeting on Thursdays at 6 in the basement of the GSU in the CGSA or email us at divestbu@gmail.com. We are now on day 10 and are going strong.
Campus Climate Walkout on 1/23 During Trump’s First 100 Hours in Office – 1/17/17
Trump and his cabinet members plan to elevate the interests of billionaires over our planet and our communities while spreading propaganda to hide the truth about their actions. Fossil fuel billionaires have been emboldened to further exploit communities most impacted by the climate crisis and to ignore the reality that climate change is one of the greatest threats humanity is facing. After the election, we saw a wave of anti-Trump marches in cities across the nation. Those marches were a powerful beginning to the resistance to Trump’s brutal and regressive policies, but we know that it will take sustained campaigning to harness the power we need to resist and reject Trump’s harmful policies. We’re going to fight back like our generation and the world depend on it, because they do.
There is a lot at risk in this moment, but there is also enormous opportunity. Millions of people are politically activated and looking for direction. As a movement fighting for justice for all people, it is our responsibility to channel that energy into effective and powerful campaigning. The fossil fuel divestment movement is responding to this moment by mobilizing campuses for nationwide walkouts and escalated actions that are more disruptive, involve greater risks, and are bigger than anything we’ve done before. We are calling on our institutions to take the moral leadership we need by acting courageously in defense of our people and planet.
DivestBU will be taking part, inviting all members of our community to join us in a walkout of our classrooms and work at 1:55 pm to stand against climate change denial and for action from our university on fossil fuel divestment. The walkout will lead to a short rally outside of the George Sherman Union (GSU) at 2 pm and a community divestment forum in the GSU at 2:15 pm. At the forum, we will hold a discussion on how the Trump administration is changing how we address climate change. The conversations will help shape our campaign to demand a re-vote by the Board of Trustees on fossil fuel divestment.
REGISTER FOR THE WALKOUT HERE: bit.ly/climatewalkout
RSVP TO THE FACEBOOK EVENT HERE
New website launched! – 1/15/17
Welcome to the new and improved DivestBU website. This is the go-to place to resources, updates, and more. If you have any inquiries, please either email us at divestbu@gmail.com or send us a message on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/divestbu.
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