This Post was written by Amanda Moseman, a student on the Reinvest Montana divestment campaign. Reinvest Montana is the divestment campaign at the University of Montana in Missoula. To learn more about Reinvest Montana and their GDD action, please visit their facebook page!
UM students demand divestment on this past Global Divestment Day 2015.
On Friday, February 13th, 20 students, alumni, and community members marched to the UM Foundation offices and delivered 60 divestment and “I Love Clean Energy”- themed valentines to Shane Giese, President and CEO of the Foundation, and Jamie Stanton, CFO of the Foundation. We made our presence known and filled the conference room where we met with the administrators. Most of the participants shook hands and introduced themselves to Giese, while offering their thoughts on why the Foundation should divest from fossil fuels.
Over the winter, the Sustainable Campus Committee, who had been tasked with looking into divestment in the fall, sent a letter the the Foundation Board Chair requesting a student presence at their spring board meeting. They rejected the proposal, and instead are forming a committee to investigate divestment. Sadly, they have denied students’ requests to be present on the committee. This will not deter us, however, and we will keeping pushing for what is right.
We believe that it is irresponsible for a university that thrives “to become a leader and role model among like-sized university foundations” to continue its investments in the fossil fuel industry. By divesting now we would become a leader, one of only 19 universities in the United States to commit to divestment. UM’s vision statement reads, “The University of Montana will lead as a globally focused public research university that serves the state, nation and world. Intrinsic to this mission are the underlying values of leadership, engagement, diversity and sustainability”. Sustainability is one of UM’s four core values, and they do not yet see divestment as the right choice for the university.
It was extremely moving and inspiring to see so many people come forward to explain why they were there, and then further question Giese about the Foundation’s stance on divestment. It was clear that he wasn’t as comfortable as he has been in previous meetings with us, I think seeing so many students and community members directly confronting him was a big eye opener for him. After the initial action, we spent a couple of hours gathering petition signatures and advertising the launch of our Responsible Endowments Fund.
Alas, the fight will continue and we shall prevail!
UM students march to the UM Foundation offices on Global Divestment Day.
