Category Archives: SAVE

VSU Environmental Issues Committee backs SAVE fossil fuel divestment

EIC went first, and
attached to

the agenda for the VSU faculty senate meeting

that moved to back SAVE and condemn the position of the Board of Trustees
this statement. -jsq

Attachment D

Links and notes from Environmental issues committee

Dl
Link to Physical Plant work order form, where the user can tailor the request to a lighting issue:

https://tma.valdosta.edu/webtma/GenerateRequest.aspx?key=8fMN5Hy6FywdBGVfahdUsPDaD%2bsth%2bE6fXG%2brkvftJ0%3d

D2

Hello,
At today’s EIC meeting, the committee voted on , and passed, the following statement that I am sending onto the
Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate.

“The EIC moved to agree to the following statement as a committee and to communicate it to the Executive Committee
of the Faculty Senate for consideration:

The EIC as a standing committee of the Faculty Senate supports the
efforts of S.A.V.E. (Students Against Violating the Environment) to
encourage the VSU Foundation to consider divesting from fossil fuel
extraction-based investments.”

If you have Continue reading →

SAVE won at VSU Faculty Senate

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!

A complete lack of concern with our request –S.A.V.E. to VSU President McKinney

S.A.V.E. never gives up, and the VSU Foundation provided fuel for the fight. -jsq

November 13, 2013

Dr. William J. McKinney

President

Valdosta State University

Dear 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 →

SAVE fossil fuel divestment on Spectator front page twice in two weeks

Winning PR by losing initial decisions:
SAVE‘s doing it right.

Will Lewis write for The Spectator yesterday,

SAVE fails to persuade Foundation,

“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 refusal read.

Here’s
SAVE’s request,
and here’s SAVE’s president’s comment:

Danielle Jordan, senior anthropology major and president of SAVE,
said, “There’s a lot of disappointment but we are not going to
stop, we don’t see this as the end of our campaign. It lets us know
where we stand with the Board of Trustees.”

The VSU Foundation’s Investment Objectives in the

Investment Policy and Guidelines
states that “Foundation funds should be
invested to produce maximum total return consistent with prudent
risk limits.”

On the other hand, the

VSU Trustee Handbook
says the Mission Statement of the VSU Foundation is: Continue reading →

Divesting from oil and gas –Prof. Matthew Richard

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 →

Display the kind of responsibility that will benefit our university, community, region, and world –S.A.V.E. to VSU Foundation

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 →

SpectraBusters against the Sabal Trail pipeline

Pipeline opposition got

written up in the Albany Herald.
You haven’t seen many pipeline posts here in the LAKE blog lately
because

SpectraBusters
has its own blog now.

Other recent developments include

Florida PSC tentatively approved pipeline,
Gertrude Dickinson’s

stream of opposition from Sumter County Florida,
and

schedule of Open House meetings in December required by FERC
among the

FERC filings about the Sabal Trail pipeline
and

how to file a comment or become an intervenor with FERC.

Remember

Spectra will be haunting the Lowndes County Commission Work Session 9 December 2013.

And if you want to see where Spectra’s gas comes from,
come see

Gasland II at VSU 7PM Thursday 7 Nobemver 2013.

SpectraBusters: We ain’t afraid a no pipeline!

-jsq

Your well-intentioned request is impractical –VSU Foundation

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, 2013

Danielle Jordan, President

S.A.V.E.

Valdosta State University

Dear 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 →

Solar SAVE goes to SGA about fossil fuels @ VSU

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 Jordan

The 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 →

Fossil Free Valdosta

Fossil Free Valdosta, a facebook page just launched by
members of

S.A.V.E. (Students Against Violating the Environment),
under VSU’s new solar canopy:

A student campaign calling on Valdosta State University to freeze
any new investments in the fossil fuel industry immediately and
divest within the next five years.

You can help divestment by

signing their petition.
That will help

VSU stop wasting investments on fossil fuels while solar stocks skyrocket.
And that will help

undermine the political power of the fossil fuel industry.
After all,
all our investments are political, and

there’s nothing neutral about investing in climate wreckage.