With February came Black History Month, the commercialized classic of Valentine’s Day and the national observance of awards shows. February also hosted the first Global Divestment Day, consisting of more than 400 awareness events in 60 countries.

Students make up a large part of the divestment movement, including Syracuse University’s own Divest SU and ESF group, and are putting pressure on academic institutions to divest from the fossil fuel industry. This involvement by students has begun to make national headlines, as seven Harvard University students took the institution and its $36 billion dollar endowment to court last week for its investment in fossil fuels.

As the movement builds, SU’s administration must value communication and transparency when it comes to potential investment in fossil fuels and create policies that bar the university from investing in the industry.

SU should take the available opportunities to form progressive policies with passionate students who are educated on the issue and dedicated to the divestment movement. However, in order to make progress, the administration must first be willing to respectfully listen to and communicate with students.

Although the university is technically not obligated to divulge any information regarding investments as a private institution, students should be met with full respect and cooperation from the administration when requesting information about the sources of profits yielded from the investment of Syracuse’s $1.183 billion endowment.

According to Divest SU founding member Emma Edwards, former Chancellor Nancy Cantor told the student advocacy group during her residence that any amount from “5–10 percent of the endowment is invested in the ‘energy sector,’” but refused to offer any more information.

Chancellor Kent Syverud then refused to meet with Divest SU or respond to emails from the group that requested a meeting to start a dialogue regarding divestment, Edwards said.

Divest SU proceeded to take part in the 18-day sit-in, organized by THE General Body, at Crouse-Hinds Hall, because the group felt their requests for dialogue had been met with a lack of transparency.

In response to the sit-in, the university’s Socially Responsible Investment Matters Committee agreed to meet with Divest SU and said, “The University’s endowment does not directly invest in any coal or fossil fuel companies. Any exposure would be through third party investment managers (such as index funds), which are not direct university investments. The university is committed to working with these managers to minimize/eliminate this exposure.”

Based upon this statement, it means that SU is not directly invested in the fossil fuel industry, but may be affiliated with fossil fuel companies through third party investments. The statement also means that the endowment could be invested in the industry in the future, as there are currently not any policies in place to prevent this.

Any involvement with the fossil fuel industry, even if it is through “third party investment managers” is setting the precedent that it is acceptable for large-scale institutions to contribute to the exploitation of our planet and the endangerment of its peoples.

Edwards says if the university had communicated with students that the endowment was not directly invested in fossil fuels, students could have started to work toward forming anti-fossil fuel investment policies and eliminating exposure to the industry through indirect investments much earlier.

As a leading academic institution, SU’s administration must recognize that forming solid anti-fossil fuel investment policies would work in favor of the school’s image, values and would be a just response to the immense efforts of students who have spent the last few semesters questioning, “Is (Syracuse University) a school or a corporation?”

Alexa Diaz is a freshman magazine journalism major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @AlexaLucina.

Published on February 25, 2015 at 12:15 am