NORTHAMPTON — About 50 windswept students and allies rallied outside Smith College’s Pierce Hall on Thursday, calling on the board of trustees to fully divest from fossil fuels.
They sang songs, waved signs and blasted their message: The majority of the student body wants the college to divest, so it’s time for the college to “put your money where our mouth is.”
The crowd cheered as students unveiled a banner reading, “Climate justice is social justice.”
Standing on the steps of Pierce Hall, Eleanor Adachi, 21, broke out the bullhorn. With a resolute expression she fiddled with the contraption until it emanated a loud siren. “Does anyone know how to use one of these things?” she asked.
“Millions of people die every year because of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction,” Adachi said once the bullhorn was working as intended. “Climate change will affect all of us and our generation is fighting for a planet we can live on.”
As of February of last year, Smith College had an endowment of about $1.7 billion, about 6 percent of which was invested in fossil fuels. It is not easy to pull this money out, as the endowment sits alongside those of several other colleges and universities in a commingled fund. All money in that fund must be removed at the same time, Adachi acknowledged. She said there’s a strong group at Barnard College, whose endowment is mingled with that of Smith, who also wants this money pulled from the fossil fuel industry.
Adachi said that while it is complicated to make this happen, it happened before with the tobacco industry and it can — and should — happen again.
Thursday’s event stood to remind the college that organizers expect a divestment-related recommendation from the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility, a subcommittee of the Investment Committee of the board of trustees, by April 1.
Smith College spokeswoman Stacey Schmeidel, meanwhile, said in an email that trustees meet regularly with students, including students from Divest Smith, and that the issue “has received careful attention at the college.”
Schmeidel said the college has taken several steps in recent years to address the issue of climate change. In 2014, trustees created a $1 million sustainable investment fund that invests money in a sustainable global equities fund.
And a year ago, Smith formed a study group on cilmate change that includes students, faculty and staff. The group has met with hundreds of people on campus to facilitate conversation about climate-related issues, Schmeidel said. The trustees will receive that group’s report at its meeting this weekend. The report will examine issues of sustainability in a comprehensive way, including investments, curriculum and campus operations.
Thursday’s proceedings, organizers said, were also about honoring those disproportionately victimized by the effects of climate change.
“We’re really just trying to raise awareness for the effects of climate change,” said Smith student Rory Redgrave, 19. “It’s about the negative impacts it has on people.”
Student organizers referred to Hurricane Katrina as an example of how poor people and people of color are more affected than wealthier white people when climate-related storms come knocking.
As they spoke, whipping winds ripped their banner from their hands, tearing it up the middle. But they persisted, unfazed.
“The U.N. reports women are disproportionately affected by climate change,” Adachi told the all-female crowd, to cheers. “Women of color are disproportionately affected by climate change.”
Money earned from investments in fossil fuels should not be tied to a college whose mission it is to educate “women for the world,” she said.
“Dirty money should not be funding the education of our next generation,” she said. “Divest Smith College!”
Marty Nathan of Climate Action Now rallied alongside the students.
“I just think it’s wonderful what they’re doing,” she said of the student group Divest Smith College. “It’s about time for the trustees to pay attention to them — they’ve been working for a very long time.”
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.