Divest Portland State: Fossil Fuels

This is part two of the three year divestPSU journey, the last part coming soon.
Climate Change
​Climate change is a human created catastrophe, and it is impacting many different communities around the world. The consensus in the scientific community is that the phenomenon is largely due to an increase of greenhouse emissions. The emissions are made up of different gases, known as the greenhouse gases, with carbon being the one most commonly studied.
 
Up until the industrial revolution, ecosystems around the world were able to cope with the large number of carbon emissions. Ecosystems have different mechanisms to trap carbon either as part of their systems or as part of the body of organisms, both in land and ocean. The abundance of carbon in the atmosphere has dramatically increased since the industrial revolution, the exploitation of natural resources like wood, coal, or oil has ultimately release the carbon back into the atmosphere.
 
The sun sends powerful sunrays, which is key to having life on earth, since they allow photosynthesis to take place. Greenhouse gases keep the sunrays (heat) from leaving our atmosphere, which is a good thing because it keeps temperatures warm for cells to function, however today there is just too many greenhouse gases. This is ultimately creating the increase of global temperatures.
 

As of 2016, the carbon concentrations in the atmosphere have surpassed 400 parts per million, a measure of abundance of gases in the atmosphere. Scientists believe that the carbon concentrations should be at 350 parts per million, in order for earth to keep sustaining life.
 
350.org is an environmental organization which seeks to bring carbon concentration back down to 350 parts per million, hence the name 350.org (350).  Several international campaigns for environmental regulation of carbon emissions were launched by 350, some which focused on legislation changes at different levels of government, while other campaigns focused on getting university endowments to divest from fossil fuels.
 
As I had previously mentioned, my involvement with the environmental sector was mostly limited to the California Students Sustainability Coalition (CSSC), a student group that worked for a more sustainable California.  After moving to Portland, OR, it was through CSSC that I came to hear about the national convening on fossil fuel divestment taking place for university students in San Francisco, CA.

CSSC cohort at the Fossil Fuel Divestment Convergence in San Francisco, CA

Fossil Fuel Divestment National Conference
The event was a perfect opportunity for my cohort of student leaders at Portland State University (PSU), for we had voted to launch a campaign on fossil fuel divestment on our campus. The trip to San Francisco brought success, as my colleagues Cindy, Linda and I were able to establish relationships with other students that attended the national gathering on fossil fuel divestment. ​​

Sharing my story at the San Francisco State national conference on fossil fuel divestment

At the conference, we also came to find out about another group, the Divestment Student Network (DSN). DSN is a student led national organization in the United States, they utilize grassroots strategies to pressure administration to take action on climate change by divesting from fossil fuels, they later on ended up leading regional networks as seen below.

Map showing divestment of fossil fuel campaigns across the United States

After checking out what the rest of the students were doing around the U.S., we came to realize that this campaign may take several years. We knew students were going to graduate, so therefore we had to figure out a way to get younger students involved to accomplish our goal. We also identified the importance of sharing resources, and collaborating with campaigns near our school.
 
Once we were back in Portland, we conducted research on the PSU Foundation, the manager of the PSU endowment. We found out that the endowment is roughly $50 million, and that JP Morgan, a corporate fossil fuel international investor, manages the endowment. ​

Brazilian international students attend the kick-off event

Campaign Kick-off
Once we found out that JP Morgan was manager of the PSU endowment, we decided to host a kick-off event to let the campus know what is going on, and recruit new members to our coalition. During Earth Week, Danielle Forest and I officially kick-off the campaign with a presentation at the Smith Student Union. At the same time our cohort members dropped a banner on the middle of the PSU campus, it highlighted the lack of congruency PSU investments had with it’s ‘leader in sustainability’ reputation.

Banner placed on the PSU Park Blocks

----I would like to acknowledge the hard work from my cohort members who allowed me to champion the divestment efforts. A big thank you to Amanda Johansonn, Katherine Knecht, Megan Dickison, Jeniffer Petrie, Larissa Butler, Will Wright, Lindsey Hartung, Fabiana Pedroso de Araujo, Linda Hoppes, Cindy Joy Staller and Emily Martin.
 
​Student Engagement
DSN staff I had met in San Francisco invited me to take part of a weeklong training for organizers in Chicago, IL. Their goal was to build regional networks to share resources, collaborate, and ultimately get educational endowments from fossil fuels. The weeklong training proved to be one of the most important weeks of my life, for it allowed me to gain clarity on my personal goals moving forward, which included taking action on climate change--now.

​SSLC members were offered a summer internship opportunity to prepare to the next phases of the campaign. The subgroups of the team focused on research of the PSU Foundation, as well as outreach strategies for the student body, alumni, faculty, and administration.  Even though I was not able to obtain the internship opportunity, I continued to spend countless hours on divestment efforts, for I knew climate action had to be taken.

​During the summer of 2014 I got to learn a range of strategies, and create relationships that would prove pivotal to the development of the campaign. Summer also meant that the Association of Students at Portland State University (ASPSU) – PSU student government – had a new administration. Linda Hoppes, my SSLC cohort colleague was part of the administration leaving, and she had helped create a position within ASPSU that would focus on sustainability (Sustainability Affairs Director). Elyse Cogburn, an environmental studies senior at the time, filled the position with the new administration.
 
Once classes began in the fall of 2014, Elyse joined the divestment of fossil fuels coalition. We identified that there was a need to educate students of what is going on, and give them a chance to ask more questions about divestment, fossil fuels, and where we should be investing the PSU money.

​In order to fill this need, we hosted an informational panel event with representatives Bryan Brumley, a certified financial planner; Dr. Randy Bluffstone, PSU professor of Economics; Dr. Linda George, PSU professor of Atmospheric Chemistry; Anthony Bencivengo, Fossil Free of Reed College organizer; Linda Hoppes; and Zach Allen, organizer for 350PDX (local branch of 350.org).  The event was a success, it was clear that the divestment movement at PSU was attracting attention.
 

 Later on the fall term, world renounced Winona Laduke visited PSU, she had led divestment of the South African Apartheid during her college years at Harvard University. In her keynote speech, Winona gave full support to the efforts to get PSU money out of fossil fuels.

Interested students quickly joined the SSLC meetings, for they saw an opportunity to fight against climate change, and make a difference as students. Due to the increased interest, Divest PSU formed, and the need to be an independent group in order continue the SSLC efforts on divestment of fossil fuels.
 
Divest PSU 
While the new SSLC cohort supported divestment efforts, Divest PSU started to meet independently, and started to amplify the methods of strategies to divest. The rest of 2014-15 year was filled with media campaigns, informational events, and a passed resolution in support of divestment at the student government.
 
SSLC collaborated with Divest PSU to host a regional conference to train student leaders in the Pacific Northwest to start their campus campaigns, part of DSN’s seven regional trainings around the U.S. Divest PSU also organized Divest Week, a weeklong series of events at PSU advocating for divestment.

Students across the U.S. were all taking initiative and escalating their campaigns, for we felt climate action must take place immediately. We strategically organized Divest Week, because it was during that week that PSU would host the annual Sustainability Celebration, an event to celebrate the work PSU does on sustainability.

Divest PSU found such celebration to be ironic, the PSU Foundation had not replied to our request to discuss the investment practices, which meant that the celebration was a perfect opportunity to shine a spotlight and be heard. ​​

Our members stormed in after PSU President Wim Wiewel’s speech at the Sustainability Celebration, dressed in all black, staging an oil spill, 30 members demanded that PSU sold fossil fuel investments. The event was covered by newspaper Portland Tribune later that month.​

I would like to give a should out to the countless other student volunteers who joined us throughout the year. I can’t recall the number of volunteers who came to help cut orange squares, make banners, or go protest at Portland City Hall to get the cities money out of fossil fuels. 

Our non-violent action was a success. President Wiewel put the students in touch with the PSU Foundation staff, so we started to meet with them over the summer. After a few meetings, it became even more apparent that this process was going to take longer.

By the time spring term had ended,  the PSU Foundation was considering a range of options, and decided to research alternatives to divestment. President Wiewel told the foundation that taking no action was not an option.

Student Government
Summer meant that a new cabinet of student leaders was elected to represent the student body of PSU, so I saw an opportunity to take over as Sustainability Director at ASPSU, after all the new ASPSU administration had set out to continue divestment efforts (beyond fossil fuels) for the upcoming academic year. I was appointed as new ASPSU Sustainability Affairs Director, under the new administration. 
 
The new administration wanted to move forward on goals of divestment of fossil fuels, private prisons, and companies benefiting from Israel occupation.  With the change of the year, Divest PSU had different students move on, so ASPSU provided capacity, space, support, and time to keep on pushing.