Divestment at RPI?

Last semester I had this idea kicking around that I wanted to start a divestment campaign on campus asking RPI to divest its endowment from fossil fuel based energy markets. I then came back to my reality and recognized that I had no time for my classwork or even cooking my groceries let alone extra-curricular activities. However, I am still intrigued by the notion of divestment at RPI and so, here is some idea of how that might look and how student bodies at other universities have accomplished this.

Divestment is when a large establishment that has a large amount of money to put into investment, be it a business, university, church, whatever, takes their money out of investing in fossil fuels and invests in something else. The reason divestment is such a huge issue is because the whole fossil fuel industry, that is polluting our atmosphere with greenhouse gases, spewing chemicals from fracking, ruining the gulf with oil spills, etc., is held financially stable with the money invested in it. There are divestment campaigns where students, churchgoers, and other community stakeholders rally and petition for divestment of their establishment because it doesn't make any sense to be preaching and teaching society on the issues of climate change while simultaneously backing oil companies. 

Some universities acknowledged that their investment portfolio wasn't reflecting their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment criteria and agreed to divest. Stanford acknowledged this and divested from 100 coal companies, while other colleges like Harvard have been pleading for 40 years that narrowing their investment options could be financially risky for a return for the college. This is ironic because they are using business-as-usal (BAU) to dictate their portfolio instead of the current reality that the fossil fuel industry can be volatile due to major accidents, political tensions, or simply the resource running out. A more sound way to invest the money could be with the growing renewable energy market or to re-invest in improving the local community.

Coming back to RPI... The initial tidbit of information that made me so intrigued was that Shirley Ann Jackson, the President of RPI, is on the board for Marathon Oil Corporation and the energy company Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG), along with IBM, Medtronic Inc., and FedEx. How this woman manages all this is beyond me, props to her. However, I wonder if the student body of her university wanted RPI to divest, would it create a conflict of interest for her? This is where the digging of information began... 

And I came up really short. Turns out you can't just look up online how your university chooses to invest their endowment. That is why a divestment campaign can also become a campaign for more transparency so the public is informed and can hold the university accountable if the do agree to divest. I was able to get financial statements from a few years ago, but none of it gave information on the kinds of companies and industries RPI invested in. 

Instead, to my surprise I discovered a history of divestment at RPI. Around September and October of 2013, only one year ago, there was a small and short-lived divestment movement that rallied for RPI to "go fossil free". But... I was here a year ago and would have found that extremely exciting, so my guess is one of the issues they had with building support was getting the word out to the student body. I'm one of the few Sustainability Studies majors enrolled, and if I didn't know about this then they must not have done enough research and planning to gather momentum for this cause. Another issue they came up against was campus politics; their "Application to Hold a Peaceful Demonstration on Campus" had been denied. 

That's what much of a divestment campaign entails, organization of activists and campaign strategies. If I were to start a divestment campaign at RPI I would start by talking with people on the buses on the way down to NYC for the People's Climate March on Sunday, September 21st. I would purposefully take advantage of the increased awareness of climate change issues among the campus community. From there I would go to student majors and clubs affiliated with environmental sciences, sustainability, economic justice, and finance, and find a staff member that would be willing to provide guidance and support. Once everyone was gathered, the next step would be to draft a petition asking RPI to disclose its investment portfolio and divest from fossil fuels. It would be even better to set up a rally or educational event where maybe 350.org could visit campus, give a speech, and mention the petition to the crowd. Once there were enough signatures obtained and awareness raised, I would imagine the culmination would be to organize a meeting with RPI Officials to ask them if they are going to respond to the campus community and divest.

In 1988 RPI students campaigned and rallied for RPI to divest from South African companies that supported the Apartheid government. They submitted two demands: that RPI disclose the companies they were invested in and to divest from those doing business with the Apartheid government. The current acting President had returned with an agreement to disclose, but not divest. When you take a step back and look at the larger picture, that was still a victory. By the mid-1980's 155 campuses, 26 state governments, 22 counties, and 90 cities divested from companies doing business with South Africa. The overall divestment campaign helped to break up the Apartheid government.

Perhaps this Fossil Free Divestment campaign will help loosen King CONG's hold on the energy market and we will finally be able to usher in a new era of renewable energy and sustainable practices.

Word Count: 962
Sources:

• Fossil Free – Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://gofossilfree.org/frequently-asked-questions/
• NACUBO: Public NCSE Tables. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://www.nacubo.org/Research/NACUBO-Commonfund_Study_of_Endowments/Public_NCSE_Tables.html
• President’s Profile - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://www.rpi.edu/president/profile.html
• PSS: Rensselaer Alumnus again calls for divestment; protested during Alumni Weekend events | The Rensselaer Polytechnic. (October 16, 2013). Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://poly.rpi.edu/2013/10/16/pss_rensselaer_alumnus_again_calls_for_divestment_protested_during_alumni_weekend_events/
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: Go Fossil Free! | Fossil Free. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://campaigns.gofossilfree.org/petitions/rensselaer-polytechnic-institute
• The Long, Stubborn Fight with Universities over Coal, Oil, and Gas Divestment « Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog. (September 10, 2014). Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://chieforganizer.org/2014/09/10/the-long-stubborn-fight-with-universities-over-coal-oil-and-gas-divestment/?utm_content=bufferb9c57&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
• Times Union - Albany NY. (January 25, 1988). Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://alb.merlinone.net/mweb/wmsql.wm.request?oneimage&imageid=5506547