{"id":6919,"date":"2015-01-27T22:50:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T22:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/?p=6919"},"modified":"2015-01-27T23:18:47","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T23:18:47","slug":"divestment-organizing-at-carleton-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/divestment-organizing-at-carleton-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Divestment Organizing at Carleton College"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Carleton College divestment movement is on fire!<\/p>\n<p>Northfield, MN &#8211; Carleton is a liberal arts college of 2,000 students in southern Minnesota. \u00a0Its progressive student body has long been active in environmental and social justice issues. \u00a0Students, led by the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/carletonclimatejusticecoalition?ref=br_tf\">Climate Justice Coalition<\/a>,\u201d and faculty and alumni of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/divestcarleton.wordpress.com\/\">Divest Carleton<\/a>\u201d have been organizing for little over a year, with\u00a0<em>much <\/em>to show for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>This week a faculty letter urging divestment, signed (as of this writing) by 69 professors, was sent to the President and Board of Trustees<strong>. The signers represent about 25% of the Carleton faculty. \u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/1aT345mFsLbUBVY7EZ0EUl8TxQ3iac_z-U3hJppqTv_c\/viewform?c=0&amp;w=1\">Click here<\/a> to see the letter in its entirety. Here are a few choice quotes:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/01\/redocarletonmeme.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-6925\" src=\"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/01\/redocarletonmeme-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"redocarletonmeme\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/01\/redocarletonmeme-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/01\/redocarletonmeme-1024x699.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/01\/redocarletonmeme-430x294.jpg 430w, https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/01\/redocarletonmeme-270x185.jpg 270w, https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2015\/01\/redocarletonmeme.jpg 1050w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>\u201cWe believe it is wrong for Carleton to continue to profit from its investment in fossil fuel companies. Inadvertently supporting such a destructive industry is inconsistent with our core values of sustainability and responsible citizenry.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>\u201cThe dimensions of the current crisis are extraordinary, and merit bold action. We simply cannot take a \u2018business as usual\u2019 approach.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>\u201cDivestment is a singular teaching moment to show that principles should stand before profits.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0A student petition has gathered over 500 student signatures, and over 300 alumni have signed the alumni petition. \u00a0At the end of Fall term, the Carleton Student Association senate voted 23-0 for a resolution encouraging the College to \u201cdivest from stocks of the top 200 fossil fuel companies within the next five years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Students, staff, alumni, and community members also gave a compelling presentation at a town-hall meeting last term, and to the college\u2019s Responsible Investment Committee this term. The students\u2019 goal is to make divestment <em>the<\/em> watchword on campus this year, with plans to raise the issue at all possible public venues.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Students are also reaching out to other groups on campus to raise social justice issues, which are intimately related to the issue of climate change<\/strong>. For instance the CJC has urged students to support and attend the Black Lives Matter and anti-racism protests in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as a recent campus wide \u201cdialogue\u201d on racial justice.<\/p>\n<p>Ideas are being circulated for a bold and exciting participation in <a href=\"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment-day\/\"><strong>Global Divestment Day<\/strong><\/a> next month. Also, a faculty initiated reading group has been proposed, which would\u00a0include students and staff studying Naomi Klein\u2019s \u201cThis Changes Everything\u201d during Spring term.<\/p>\n<p>With Board of Trustees meetings scheduled for February and May this year, there is much to do, but the Carleton community is energized and optimistic of what lies ahead on campus this year!<\/p>\n<p>To support the Carleton divestment campaign, \u201clike\u201d the Facebook pages of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/carletonclimatejusticecoalition\"><strong>Climate Justice Coalition <\/strong><\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DivestCarleton\"><strong>Divest Carleton<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Bob Dobrow and Trish Ferrett<\/p>\n<p><em>Carleton College Faculty Members<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Carleton College divestment movement is on fire! Northfield, MN &#8211; Carleton is a liberal arts college of 2,000 students<span class=\"text-cutoff\">&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":6922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}