In the news: "Harvard Faculty Votes Overwhelmingly to Support Divestment"
Originally published at Fund Fire
February 5, 2020 by Aziza Kasumov
Harvard University’s faculty on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of a motion advising the school to dump all its fossil fuel holdings, the latest in a string of divestment efforts targeting one of the country’s largest university endowments.
The faculty voted 179 to 20 in support of the motion, which advises university leadership to instruct the Harvard Management Corporation (HMC), the organization managing the school’s $41 billion endowment, to sell all its investments in the discovery and development of fossil fuels. The proposal also asks HMC to fire external asset managers unwilling to follow those instructions.
Excerpt:
Endowment divestment campaigns across the country have also surged in recent months, building on that momentum, says Alyssa Lee, director of Divest Ed, a support organization for campus activists. On Feb. 13, at least 50 colleges, including Harvard, will host fossil fuel divestment events.
“There’s absolutely an uptick in activism and campaigns,” says Lee, adding that campaigns are also spreading more toward the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions.
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In the news: "Harvard Alumni Recruit Professional Divestment Activists"
Originally published at The Harvard Crimson
September 27, 2019 by By Alexandra A. Chaidez and Aidan F. Ryan
The Ad Hoc Committee for Harvard Divest — a group of Harvard alumni advocating for the University to divest its endowment from fossil fuels— raised $60,000 to hire two coordinators for alumni activities through the Cambridge climate group Better Future Project.
The committee raised money for Better Future Project to hire former College students and divestment organizers Canyon S. Woodward ’15 and Chloe S. Maxmin ’15, who is also a Maine State Representative, according to former United States Senator and Ad Hoc Committee member Timothy E. Wirth ’61.
Wirth said the group is continuing to push the University to divest from fossil fuels through the creation of these new positions.
Excerpt:
Both Woodward and Maxmin officially work for the Better Future Project — headed by Executive Director Craig S. Altemose — but focus their efforts specifically on Harvard. The pair is involved with the group’s Divest Ed project, which works to expand the fossil fuel divestment campaign on college campuses.
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