Tag Archives: Wayne Edwards

Humans are the cause, and it’s time for people to become the solution –Danielle Jordan for SAVE

LTE in the VSU newspaper, The Spectator, today. -jsq

To the Editor,

Climate change is the defining issue of our time. Ninety-seven percent of scientists agree that humans are the cause. S.A.V.E. believes that it’s time for people to become the solution. Globally, we are feeling the impacts of record-setting temperatures, most notably in the extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels. Recent chemical (W.VA) and coal ash spills (N.C.) add to the urgency of moving beyond fossil fuel. Yet here on our campus there’s a remarkable disconnect between the classroom and the board room. Shockingly, the VSU Board of Trustees includes science deniers, oblivious to the threat of climate change—and to the academic integrity of this institution of higher learning.

Recently, the Board dismissed S.A.V.E.’s request that VSU rid its portfolio of fossil fuel holdings. Board Chairman, Wayne Edwards, a financial analyst, cast doubt on the study that accompanied our request. But we ask you, who knows more about climate, a team of 2,000 scientists from 154 countries who have compiled data from more than 9,000 studies, or a stock broker? Our point is that serious decisions at this institution are being taken by people who lack the proper credentials.

Chairman Edwards dismissed socially responsible investing as Continue reading

SAVE to dine with VSU Foundation Monday

The VSU Foundation has invited SAVE to dinner Monday. No agenda is known, but the Foundation gets four attendees and SAVE gets two.

Foundation attendees are to be:

The two attendees from Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.), each apparently twice as heavyweight as a Foundation Trustee, will be: Continue reading

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