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
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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
Perhaps the university should ban all electricity not coming from fossil fuel. The students would be sitting in the dark with no place to charge their IPads until the sun came up to shine their solar panels or the wind was favorable enough for short period of electricity.
Ok, so cut the power and water to the building these idiots are occupying. Lock the gas tanks on their cars. Burn all their clothes and belongings because those were made using fossil fuels. That includes their precious cell phones. Don’t allow them any food or drink, again, because those were made using fossil fuels and the delivery boy used gasoline to drive over from the pizza joint. No garbage pick up for them either.
do they know where the plastic in their computers and other things come from?
Good - cut of their electricity and heat for a week or two. Things should get real fun when they can’t recharge their phones, and laptops, and tablets. And no fresh food in the cafe.
“Rebels without a clue.”
The funniest part about this is that next year their tuition is going up by up to 11%.
That they aren’t burning the place down with the aid of petroleum-based products over this development shows how disconnected they are about what matters in life.
What on earth would they do without the ability to charge their I-phones? /s
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