Posted on 04/09/2015 9:26:10 AM PDT by mbarker12474
DivestUMW sit-in spans a week [University of Mary Washington in Virginia, fossil fuel divestment]
STUDENTS CONTINUING SIT-IN TO PUSH board TO DIVEST OF FOSSIL FUELS
“WE’RE STILL GOING STRONG. WE’RE SUPPORTING EACH OTHER AND THE SUPPORT FROM FACULTY AND ALUMNI KEEPS US GOING.” NATE LEVINE, UNIVERSITY OF MARY WASHINGTON JUNIOR
Posted: Saturday, April 4, 2015 12:00 am
BY LINDLEY ESTES/THE FREE LANCE-STAR
University of Mary Washington junior Nate Levine was planning to spend Easter at home with his family.
As a member of DivestUMW, he will instead celebrate at a sit-in protest in the first floor hallway of George Washington Hall.
“We’re still going strong,” he said. “We’re supporting each other and the support from faculty and alumni keeps us going.”
The sit-in, which turned a week old on Thursday, is made up of students who want UMW to rid its endowment of investments in fossil fuel companies.
The protest began March 26 with 20 people sitting outside of University of Mary Washington President Rick Hurley’s office.
About 130 people spent some time at the sit-in over the course of the week.
DivestUMW club members have specific demands for this sit-in: that the board create a subcommittee to study divestment and commit to pulling all of the university’s investments in the coal industry by 2016. The board decided earlier in March not to create the subcommittee.
“We’ve been sitting in one week and continue to get really empty rhetoric and responses from the board of visitors,” DivestUMW member Rabib Hasan said.
He also said the atmosphere on campus has changed.
On Monday, the Feminists United on Campus club held a march against rape culture, and on Wednesday, students protested tuition hikes.
Hasan said he thinks students are holding their governing body more accountable.
DivestUMW member Sarah Kinzer said they don’t have an end date for the sit-in, and they won’t leave until their demands are met. She said a UMW alumnus has promised to bring them Easter dinner.
Lindley Estes: 540.735-1976 lestes@freelancestar.com
-----------------------
Several articles/posts by writer Lindley Estes on this topic. A more recent article is "DivestUMW reaching out to prospective students" at: http://www.fredericksburg.com/news/divestumw-reaching-out-to-prospective-students/article_902a8a21-73f0-5482-88f4-3eab5f02176c.html
1. For these idiots to get coverage and legitimacy, there must be a writer and string of editors/publisher at the local newspaper which doesn't simply run this news story, but runs it carrying a sympathetic tone and not a shred of scrutiny of the idiotic premises and worldview of the protestors. How can one call themselves a journalist, claim to have a brain, and run the story in the straight-up, zero-scrutiny fashion as done here?
2. Some students have occupied one of the buildings at UMW now for 14 days. For this to happen, several layers of administration at UMW have had accede to what otherwise would be considered trespassing, illegal behavior, etc., in a "public" building. As was the case at Columbia in 1968, why isn't the administration sending in the cops to crack heads? Are these protesting students the ONLY persons with an interest in the functioning of this PUBLIC university? Why do Virginia's taxpayers put up with an administration which does not toss these vagrants off of campus and expel them?
Children in search of a cause
Turn the A/C off!
A/C, water, electricity, and food service.
turnoff the lights, too
and ban pizza delivery
Let’s go see what these brats & elitist faculty are driving....
I wonder how many of these little cherubs have cars. Activism starts at home, kids.
Is this what passes for “critical thinking” now-a-daze?
Then they better get rid of all their modern conveniences, electronics and food........................
What happens when you drop God from the schedule.
We need to raise the voting age to 25.
May I suggest they move to a place more to their liking, like North Korea.
I am for their cause! I insist that they be banned from all use of fossil fuels. Plastics, cars, mass transit, electricity: THEY MAY NOT USE IT.
Just yards away from this campus, American soldiers sacrificed their lives for real causes in 1862-63.
Kids these days.
Pathetic really.
The school, actually a public school, has an endowment of $41 MM. So selling a few thousands shares of oil companies will really show them. Since the school is state supported how about the state cut the funding from the school by the amount of taxes collected from fossil fuel related activity. That will make them happy right???
use some sort CELL Blocking .. apparatus...... and they’ll be gone in a few MINUTES!!
My daughter on participated in a sit in. The reason? Administration did away with reading day before finals.
Students sat in the main corridor of the admin building with their books open and studied there for the day. Several professors showed up and sat with them and did impromptu tutoring sessions for those that needed some extra help.
Turn the heat off next winter.
no beer, it’s transport by truck
Indeed. I guess they have listened to their radical grandparents tales from the 60's. You know, warm spring afternoons on the quad, flowers in bloom, sun glinting off of fixed bayonets, the admin building burning, that sort of thing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.