Here’s a cross-post from Cornell University’s own news site (!) on student leaders presenting in front of the Board of Trustees:
| SUNY Chairman of the Board H. Carl McCall addresses the Cornell Board of Trustees at a meeting in Ithaca, March 28. |
Robert Barker/University Photography
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| Kyoto Now! members Dennis Fox ’15 and Rebecca Macies ’14 advocate for the university to divest from investments in fossil fuel companies. |
Two student members of the campus environmental organization Kyoto Now! made their case for Cornell to divest from investments in fossil fuel companies at an open session of the Cornell Board of Trustees meeting on campus March 28.
The trustees, university administrators and student groups have been in ongoing dialogues about divestment for the past year.
“Our financial support of climate polluters creates a discrepancy between the ideals and trajectory of the university and its investment policy,” said Dennis Fox ’15.
Representing Kyoto Now!, Fox and Rebecca Macies ’14 asked the university “to fully withdraw its investments in the fossil fuel industry by 2020, and reinvest 30 percent of those divested funds” in responsible sustainable investments.
More than 300 campuses nationwide are running divestment campaigns, including all the other Ivy League schools, Fox said. “American endowments add up to more than $400 billion, and we have the power to influence the impacts that money will have on our future,” he said.
President David Skorton had yielded his time during the meeting’s open session to Kyoto Now!
Adam Gitlin ’13, president of the Student Assembly (SA), presented a report to the board. Regarding divestment, Gitlin said that while the SA recognizes that immediate divestments could lead to cuts for vital student services, responsible endowment could “align the goals of Kyoto Now! and the investment committee.”