This article is part three of a nine-part series that focuses on climate change. More specifically, this series will go in-depth on the human disconnect of accepting the reality of climate change, the role of the media, the power of student voices in environmental movements, climate science, sustainability and the pressure for the University of Denver to divest from fossil fuels.
Protests, walk-outs, sit-ins and petitions are just some of many elements of movements around the world, and even at DU, that are encouraging their institutions to divest from fossil fuels. The most rewarding event for these environmental groups would be to see their institution divest from fossil fuels.
Student movements are not limited to just divestment campaigns. Students protested in-person classes during the pandemic, “March For Our Lives” saw students walk out of school against gun violence, U.S. civil rights protests from Greensboro to Columbia, “Love Trumps Hate” student rallies and the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment where college students protested against rape culture.
DU students have continuously protested against the use of the Pioneer moniker by gathering students and faculty members to march through campus. The unofficial student group, Righteous Anger! Healing Resistance! (R.A.H.R.), led the reigns behind the #NoMorePios protest.
Student voices are powerful, loud and needed to make change at their university. The university’s job is to represent your values. Students were unhappy with their university’s complacency and inability to act. This was evident through the variety of protests, mentioned above, that gained the media’s attention.
“I feel as though our generation has a moral obligation to be apathetic to neither the effects of climate change or the things that have caused it,” Griffin Taylor, a senior at DU said.
At DU, a group of students have formed a movement to demand the university to divest from fossil fuels. It is not a club, it is a movement. The power of the student body is what can encourage DU to divest from fossil fuels.
“My main goal is to be able to be the shining example of students who want to make a change on campus and can look at us as an organization and see the type of dedication and work it takes. I want to show those who feel that they are paying a large sum of tuition that things can be changed and made to cater to a student body,” Alejandro Carrillo, a sophomore at DU said.
Popular student movements at Harvard University, University of Michigan, Whitman College, Rutgers University and the University of Minnesota made an impact on their Board of Trustees, and successfully got their university to divest.
The Endowment Justice Collective is a committee of students and faculty at Rutgers University that is seeking justice for students by holding the university accountable for its investments. The collective got the university to divest from fossil fuels in March 2021.
The University of Michigan (UM) divested as a result of student advocacy. At a meeting of UM’s Board of Regents, Regent Mark Bernstein stated that the students were “thoughtful, well-informed, absolutely relentless, and in the end, successful.” UM students conducted protests at board meetings, blocking regents from leaving, in addition to a sit-in at their administration building.
The University of Minnesota (UMN) also divested due to student pressure. The UMN’s students wrote a letter to the Board of Regents, encouraging them to “stand on the right side of history” by phasing out fossil fuel investments. Students also advocated for Harvard University to divest from fossil fuels beginning in 2012, with the divestment process occurring in 2021.
“Of course divesting is the main goal, but that’s the modality in which we (DU’s climate movement) will figure out how our student body really interacts and intersects, and how we can navigate this information to make changes that we and others around us want to see,” Carrillo said.
The reason these universities have divested is because of the students speaking up and holding their university accountable. These protests may be viewed as distracting or pointless, but these protests get the students and professors to listen, which has been effective at other universities. Consistent pressure from the student body is what makes the university understand that this issue is not going away.
