SAVE president Danielle Jordan
posted on SAVE’s facebook page
about an hour ago:
BIG WIN, SAVE!
The
faculty senate voted, unanimously, to support
our divestment campaign. They also voted to condemn and reject
the BOT response letter.Way to go, everyone! We’re making progress!
S.A.V.E. never gives up, and the VSU Foundation provided fuel for the fight. -jsq
Dr. William J. McKinney
President
Valdosta State UniversityDear President McKinney,
Thank you very much for agreeing to be a part of
our ceremony for the new solar canopy this Friday. We are excited
for it, and we are glad that you will be able to come. We definitely
appreciate your support, and we hope to have a nice turnout!As happy as we are about VSU’s continuing efforts to “go
green,” I am writing to you in regard to
S.A.V.E.’s ongoing
fossil fuel divestment campaign and
the recent response we received
from the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the VSU Foundation. If
you have not yet read the letter, I have attached a copy for your
convenience.We were clearly disappointed to hear that
our request had been
denied, but what troubled us the most was the condescending tone
used by Mr. Edwards in the last part of his letter. To end his
letter on University (not Foundation) letterhead with sarcasm and
cavalier dismissal of our concerns is unacceptable, especially as we
have acted in a respectful manner throughout this process. Within
his response, Mr. Edwards downplays the importance of practicing
social responsibility and belittles the validity of past divestment
campaigns that have been used to counteract injustices such as
South Africa’s Apartheid regime, which represented an inhumane and
repressive system that needed to be challenged.
We also find Continue reading
Dr. Richard posted this letter to the editor of the
The Spectator,
VSU’s student newspaper,
on SAVE’s facebook page today. I added the links and the images. -jsq
To the Editor:I would like to address the VSU community with this letter.
VSU Students, faculty, and staff, did you know that many of the
clothes that we admire and purchase in the USA are made in places
like Bangladesh? Indeed, some of our most popular brands of
clothing, including GAP, Old Navy, and Banana Republic originate
there. Perhaps you know that many Bangladeshi clothing manufacturers
employ children as young as 12 years old who earn as little as $32
per month despite working up to 14 hours a day? It’s little wonder
that so many of us can look so stylish—and for relatively
little money.If you didn’t already know this, does it matter to you now? Are you
concerned that the money you spend supports sweatshops in Bangladesh
and elsewhere, perpetuating the misery of millions of our fellow
human beings? Undoubtedly many of us are concerned, and we
understand that we can make a difference in the world by being more
judicious about where we shop. It’s why we choose to buy groceries
at worker-friendly Publix rather than Continue reading
A copy of what the VSU Foundation called the “
“well-intentioned request” by
Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.).
I added the links and images.
-jsq
October 17, 2013
Dear VSU Foundation and Board of Trustees,
Recent years have brought climate change to the forefront of public
discussion.
A newly released report from the United Nations
indicates with 95% certainty that humans are the primary cause of
the issue. It is our concern that the continuation of our current
practices and our dependence on fossil fuels will only result in
continued environmental degradation and human struggle. Knowing the
impact that anthropogenic climate change has upon our environment,
our health, and our economy, we are asking Valdosta State University
to take a stand and join in the effort to address this issue, as
social responsibility is part and parcel to the role of public
institutions.As a public institution, Valdosta State University has a
responsibility to shape the debate about climate change through its
voice, and fossil fuel divestment is another medium for that voice.
We are asking that VSU immediately Continue reading
The VSU Foundation knows more than 98% of climate scientists,
and also sneers at former divestment from tobacco and apartheid companies.
Nevermind that
fossil fuel divestment is going faster than either of those.
Is it good fiduciary responsibility to stay invested in the stranded investments
of fossil fuel stocks while
solar stocks are skyrocketing?
Is this really how to encourage people to
give to VSU?
Is that how
the alumni
want their investments used?
Seen today on
S.A.V.E.’s facebook page,
VSU Foundation’s response
to
S.A.V.E.’s fossil fuel divestment request:
October 29, 2013Danielle Jordan, President
S.A.V.E.
Valdosta State UniversityDear Ms. Jordan,
The Investment Committee of the VSU Foundation Board of Trustees has
reviewed the request from your organization that securities issued
by companies engaged in the production of fossil fuel energy be
excluded from the foundation’s endowment portfolios. Compliance with
your well-intentioned request is impractical for a number of reasons
and perhaps even a breach of the fiduciary responsibility that all
of our trustees take very seriously.The various VSU Foundation endowment portfolios are managed Continue reading
Not just
faster than apartheid divestment;
faster than divestment from tobacco, armaments, and others:
fossil fuel divestment.
It’s not about direct reduction of market capitalization;
it’s about making it socially unacceptable to buy from stigmatized
companies, and it works, and it’s working faster than ever for fossil fuels.
Oh, and fossil fuel companies are a tiny sliver of university endowments,
so ditching them is pain free,
especially now that
fossil fuel stock prices are not rising while solar stocks skyrocket
(and nuclear stocks don’t).
Go fossil free, go VSU.
 Stranded Assets and the Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign: What Does Divestment Mean for the Valuation of Fossil Fuel Assets? 8 October 2013 | Authors: Atif Ansar, Ben Caldecott, James Tilbury |
Damian Carrington wrote for the Guardian Monday 7 October 2013
Campaign against fossil fuels growing, says study:
Investors being persuaded to take their money out of fossil fuel sector, according to University of Oxford study,
A campaign to persuade investors to take their money out of the fossil fuel sector is growing faster than any previous divestment campaign and could cause significant damage to coal, oil and gas companies, according to a
study from the University of Oxford.
The report compares the current
fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has attracted 41 institutions since 2010, with those against tobacco, apartheid in South Africa, armaments, gambling and pornography. It concludes that the direct financial impact of such campaigns on share prices or the ability to raise funds is small but the reputational damage can still have major financial consequences.
SAVE‘s fossil fuel
divestment request made the
front page of
The Spectator at VSU,
and Danielle Jordan of SAVE was pullquote about fossil fuels
in another front page story, about solar panels on the Odum Library.
The student government didn’t vote to support SAVE’s request, but
many senators said they didn’t understand the subject and the student
government asked to get educated
about
fossil fuels and divestment.
Jordan Barela and Von Kennedy
wrote for The Spectator 24 October 2013,
Solar panels bring green energy to Odum,
VSU is moving in a greener direction.
A solar canopy was recently built behind Odum Library.
“We cannot address climate change without decreasing our dependency
on fossil fuels and solar is one way we could change that.”
—Danielle JordanThe canopy is a 10 kilowatt solar array. The canopy produces energy
that goes directly to Odum Library, and does not go to the Georgia
Power grid.Construction of the solar canopy began in September, and was
finished earlier this month.“It is exciting,” Danielle Jordan, president of Students
Against Violating the Environment, said. “We cannot address
climate change without decreasing our dependency on fossil fuels and
solar is one way we could change that.”The solar panels were manufactured by Continue reading
Should Harvard President Drew Faust
worry that
“Significantly constraining investment options risks significantly constraining investment returns”?
Actually, if Harvard has been wasting investments in oil and gas for the
past year, its endowment has lost a bundle.
Ditto VSU.
Let’s compare stock performance of
Guggenheim Solar ETF (NYSE:TAN)
which invests in solar stocks with the
PowerShares DB Energy Fund (NYSEARCA:DBE),
which invests in oil and natural gas companies.
Yep, that’s
120% for TAN and 0% for DBE:
Sure, if you go back farther, solar stocks continued to drop after 2009
until this year: Continue reading
Our investments ARE political.
And that’s just as true at VSU.
Not even
Tim DeChristopher put it more pithily than that.
Samantha Caravello wrote in the Harvard Law Record 7 October 2013,
Pres. Faust, There’s Nothing Neutral About Investing in Climate Wreckage,
noting that
Pres. Faust’s excuses
were actually in response to
“an invitation from undergraduates to participate in an open forum
on divesting Harvard’s $32 billion endowment from the top 200 fossil
fuel companies.”
President Faust warned against using the endowment in ways that
would position the university as a political actor, claiming Continue reading
Answering
Harvard President Drew Faust’s excuses,
Tim DeChristopher, who
went to jail for directly opposing gas and oil drilling
and is now
a student at Harvard Divinity School,
To seriously suggest that any research will solve the climate crisis
while we continue to allow the fossil fuel industry to maintain a
stranglehold on our democracy is profoundly naive.
Wen Stephenson
wrote for the Nation 4 October 2013,
Tim DeChristopher: There Is No ‘Neutral’ in the Climate Fight,
including DeChristopher’s statement:
Drew Faust seeks a position of neutrality in a struggle where the
powerful only ask that people like her remain neutral. She says that
Harvard’s endowment shouldn’t take a political position, and yet it
invests in an industry that spends countless millions on corrupting
our political system. In a world of corporate personhood, if she
doesn’t want that money to be political, she should put it under her
mattress. She has clearly forgotten the words of Paolo Freire:
“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and
powerless means to side with the powerful, not to remain
neutral.”
Or as Howard Zinn put succinctly, “You can’t
be neutral on a moving train.”She touts Continue reading
