Running a divestment movement on your campus doesn’t have to be super complicated. In this episode, we break down the steps to running a divestment campaign, from how to do research on the financials of your school, to how to assemble an effective team, and more. We also hear tips from divestment organizers from colleges around the U.S., including Harvard University, De Anza College, and The Better Future Project.
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Hosts/Reporters: Katherine Li and Rishab Jagetia
Writers/Producers: Katherine Li and Rishab Jagetia
Guests: Ilana Cohen (Harvard University), Cynthia Kauffman (De Anza College), Kerrina Williams (The Better Future Project)
Audio Editor: Emily Nagamoto
Music: Cali by WataR, carefree by WataR
TRANSCRIPT:
KATHERINE:
I’m going to drop you right in the scene. You’re at the Harvard Yale football game. The most intense rivalry in the Ivy League. Now this is THE MOST highly anticipated sporting event in the Ivy League. It’s so entrenched in the culture of the students at Harvard and Yale that they simply refer to it as “The Game”. So needless to say, you’re excited. Because whoever wins this game gets bragging rights for the rest of the year. And as any college sports fan knows, that means a lot. The stadium is packed-- tens of thousands of people flocked to the Yale Bowl to watch. After a riveting first half, the Yale marching band performs their halftime show and after they’re done, you’re SO ready to see the rest of the game. Who’s gonna win???? But wait. Students start to run towards the football field from the stands. And there’s a LOT of them storming the field. They unfurl large banners that read “Nobody Wins: Yale and Harvard are complicit in climate injustice”. Wait what? Okay, halftime is nearly over and they’re still not getting off the field. But hundreds of more spectators from the crowd start to join them on the field. Chants of “Fossil fuels have to go” are echoing all around you. The start of the second half ends up being delayed by an hour, and 42 student protesters are issued citations by New Haven police officers.
RISHAB:
This protest got the attention of major media outlets, like the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR… So of course, it got the attention of Harvard and Yale administration too. We see a moment and we see how it leads to success, but a divestment movement is about everything that went into it before. The planning components of the actual event, the coalition building between groups, the working with and working against administration, all of these are parts of divestment that encapsulate the power of divestment organizing.
KATHERINE:
You’re listening to Operation Climate, a show by young people for young people where we break down climate issues and talk about how students and young people can take action in the climate movement.
KATHERINE:
I’m Katherine.
RISHAB:
And I’m Rishab
KATHERINE:
Okay, so starting out may seem overwhelming because divestment is a huge issue to tackle. But we’re going to break it down for you step by step.
RISHAB:
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING, REALIZE THAT THERE IS A COMMUNITY OF SUPPORT FOR DIVESTMENT ORGANIZERS. Organizations like 350.org, Divest Ed, and the College Climate Coalition all have experienced organizers with the answers to most questions. Reach out to them if you’re struggling.
KATHERINE: So ahhhh divestment so much to talk about ahhhh big topic ahhhh where do we start?? What’s step 1?
RISHAB: Like any good campaign, we have to start with RESEARCH. Organizers need to understand the basics of their schools’ financials and politics before they start with a lot of the more fun stuff.
KATHERINE: Right, and to guide your research process, here are some questions that you should try to answer. One: what is the structure of your school’s endowment?
RISHAB: Endowments are the pools of money that universities and institutions use to invest in certain stocks and other asset classes. So, the first thing organizers need to do is figure out how much money is being invested in fossil fuels!
KATHERINE: Two: What are the current policies and practices for managing university investments?
RISHAB: Colleges always have policies for how they want to invest their money. Their primary consideration is always fiduciary duty, or the idea that they have to earn enough money to provide for the university and its goals. However, after that there’s often criteria that these investors use, like how the college wants to invest “responsibly” or “ethically” or whatever financial jargon they use.
KATHERINE: Three: Who has the most power over investment decisions?
RISHAB: At most schools, investments are controlled by a board of trustees, which are usually a bunch of older dudes with lots of clout, and an actual investment management office that manages the money. A lot of times, past campaigns at your campus have information on who exactly pulls the levers, and if that doesn’t exist, you can usually tell by looking at the meeting notes of board meetings or investment meetings.
KATHERINE: So how do you go about answering these questions? Pro tip: talk to as many people as you can, and ask around.
RISHAB: First, look at your Treasurer’s Office page, because it often has a yearly report with general summaries of their investments. After that, you gotta ask around and do some detective work. The Investment or Treasurer’s office is a good place to start, as is anyone in the Board of Trustees with which someone already knows.
Public universities are much easier to obtain information from than private universities because their files have to be accessible to the public. If it’s difficult to find any more information, you could look at the institution’s 990 tax form from the IRS, found on www.guidestar.com, or the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Website.
KATHERINE: A lead organizer for the University of Michigan campaign, Luke Dillingham, offers simple advice for any future organizers: “take the number representing the whole endowment, find the percentage in ‘natural resources’ (around 90% of which equate fossil fuels in most funds), and then what you want is to go through the companies and find one or two investments that are just the worst. No random university person cares about what the endowment is invested in and it's pretty difficult to get people to care about that. But it's a lot easier to say, ‘This company is horrible and made all this money from a horrible industry.”
RISHAB: While it is important to find rough estimates of how much money is invested in fossil fuels, details such as investments in certain companies, the exposure to fossil fuels in mutual funds, and other specifics are usually not needed in the beginning stages of campaigns. DON’T spend all your energy researching financials-- will get you sidetracked. Divestment organizing is about POLITICS.
CYNTHIA KAUFFMAN: “There's two buckets of the research: the organizing bucket and the finance bucket and I think you can dispense of the finance bucket pretty quickly, in some cases. The organizing bucket is really about who knows who, who controls what, and where is the money you want divested. I still hold onto this idea really tightly, that this is not about the money, it's about the politics.” Students spend a huge amount of time trying to learn how to read investment spreadsheets and they don’t have to. You just argue, ‘we know you own fossil fuel stocks because you have a normal portfolio, so you should commit to selling them’. That doesn’t mean you should be ignorant; you should do your homework, but you shouldn’t spend all your energy on researching financials”
ILANA COHEN: “It’s not worth trying to take the time generally to find out exactly how much money your institution has because if it has any money, that amount is lending social credit to the fossil fuel industry. The point of divestment is not about dropping the shares. Really how we do that is through political and social stigmatization. Disclosure is an important step in so far as if you are actually divesting as an institution and materially helps to know how much money you have in fossil fuels and where that money is.”
KATHERINE: Now that you have the background knowledge to ground your divestment movement, you can move onto step 2. If you haven’t done this already, you need a core team of people to help you.
RISHAB: Like any organization, you can’t succeed unless you always have someone continuing the work, organizing the team, and keeping the campaign in communication with change-makers on campus.
KATHERINE: Set out goals with your team. Goals that take into account the political circumstances of their schools but also are ambitious.
RISHAB: For instance, maybe a conservative school without many commitments to sustainability won’t be receptive to divestment, but they could be pushed on investing in clean energy. Many teams take time in the beginning parts of their campaigns to set values. Do students want to pursue escalative tactics or more cordial conversations with administration?
KERRINA WILLIAMS: The biggest mistake we’ve seen is so much of the knowledge and labor sitting with two people...once those people graduate, the campaign’s done. The best way to organize is to build that base and make sure that everyone knows what’s going on in the campaign and knows how to do it.” One-on-ones...allowing people to build up their skills...relationship-building and investing time into each other” such as “asking someone to volunteer to co-facilitate meetings or “actively bringing someone into the planning”
KATHERINE: Here comes a tricky part. You’ve done the research on your school, you have a dedicated group of people that are supporting this divestment movement… now the next step is talking to your university’s administration -- or the people who have the most influence over divestment making decisions.
RISHAB: Power mapping is crucial: Who is an ally that might be supportive of divestment, and what power do they have in decision-making? Who opposes divestment and you should avoid them? Questions like these are the fundamentals of power mapping, which pretty much maps out the people strategy of a campaign.
KATHERINE: When you go into a meeting with administration, you should have goals for that meeting. What makes a meeting productive?
RISHAB: Your first priority should be understanding the perspectives of decision-makers in power. Once you understand where administration stands on divestment and what the culture around sustainability is on campus, you can better figure out tactics to pursue in negotiations. Go into conversations not forgetting to clarify the point of divestment. You should be prepared to take on administrators’ criticism of divestment by responding with counterarguments conveying divestment’s true impact.
KATHERINE: Okay, let’s try this out. I’m gonna be the university administration, and Rishab you can be the awesome amazing divestment organizer. Young lad, you seem to have done your research, which I respect. However, isn’t divestment risky?? Won’t we lose money?? (we won’t have the funds for our insane lawn care anymore!!)
RISHAB: Well administrator, I definitely see your point, but it’s a common misconception that Divestment and reinvestment are “risky”. There is ample evidence from companies such as Blackrock, Morningstar, Morgan Stanley, and more that environmentally conscious investing is not only as financially viable as traditional form of investment but that they may offer lower risk in otherwise volatile markets.
KATHERINE: Why not focus on making our campus more sustainable?
RISHAB: Improving campus sustainability is certainly something that institutions should consider, but it would be ironic to use irresponsibly invested money to fund these projects. If your administrators want to use oil and gas money to install more LEDs, you should probably point out the hypocrisy of that.
KATHERINE: Okay, I understand young lad. However, it’s not up to me, the literal president of the university, our money is managed by asset managers and consultants.
RISHAB: When organizers are faced with this question, it may be the right time to explore ways in which institutions can leverage their investment options in alternative ways. First, organizers may say, “Due to the fiduciary responsibility of the board/investment committee, all investment decisions ultimately have to go through the institution, so you do in fact have power.” If that isn’t an effective argument, organizers often propose that institutions explore different modes of investing, such as moving money to new fossil free funds or creating new investment policies for their managers/consultants. The main point is, “Ok, so what? You still have the power to change in specific ways.”
KATHERINE: Golly gee! What a smart young lad! Okay, our university will divest from fossil fuels now! Just kidding, it’s probably not going to happen this easily. But this would still be a successful meeting. Why?
RISHAB: If you can identify points of leverage that portray divestment as beneficial to the university, and make clear asks from administrators, your meeting is successful. Whether the ask is to meet with administrators in two weeks or request an analysis on the feasibility of divestment from the investment office, you should leave meetings knowing that you moved the ball forward.
KATHERINE: Wooooo, now we have the last steps that we’re going to cover in this episode. Movement building and escalation. How did Harvard and Yale organizers get hundreds of people to storm the football field, national news coverage, and force their university admin to acknowledge them? Building a movement.
RISHAB: Once a team has a sense of organization and direction, they should work to increase support, awareness, and publicity around divestment. The most successful divestment campaigns are often the most recognizable on campus, being able to draw from widespread student support for the cause, multiple groups/hubs of power helping coordinate efforts, and increased pressure on administration to change.
One thing that would be helpful for you to do in this coalition building is to look for allies within and around the school to coordinate campaigns.
ILANA COHEN: “I think we can really appreciate that, like the different perspectives everyone in a broad coalition brings is invaluable to ultimately at the end of the day. being united front when it comes to the big picture, and that is really what we are right, we always recognize that, like we can go, we can support one another faculty alumni and students and also the other groups who are in our coalition without necessarily like aligning on every tactic, that we do more important that we have a shared organizational mission and vision that we're achieving together right.The faculty are not going to storm a football field, I mean it'd be cool if they did, but I like that's unlikely, you know. It doesn't really make sense, like that's not the type of thing that they're necessarily best that they have a better in the administration, they can do things like vote faculty votes that like. Our pro divestment that looks really, really bad for the university like because their faculty are basically saying ‘We reject your stance, and we think you need to act and we're embarrassed that you're not acting’, so those sorts of things are different right but they're all equally powerful and it's important that they work together.
KATHERINE: Petitions and resolutions -- do those hold any significance?
RISHAB: A must-have for divestment organizers. Administrators care about students’ opinions, so an official letter/vote of support goes a long way. Organizers often supplement their actions with written displays of support from the centers of power at their school, whether that be the student government, student body referendum, class council, or other methods. Petitions function both to increase support for divestment but also to increase awareness on campus. If more people see petitions for divestment, more people might google what divestment is in the first place.Any support on paper helps a campaign “make yourself bigger than you are”
KATHERINE: What about rallies and protests -- like what the Harvard and Yale students did at their football game.
RISHAB: Direct action is useful for many reasons. First, it demonstrates to the administration the seriousness of the campaign. Second, it raises awareness for divestment and gets more of the student body involved. Finally, it incentivizes administration members to be more open to listening to demands of students to avoid future confrontation.
KERRINA WILLIAMS: “You would want to do lower escalation first, such as flyering, and then move up to things like class visits, or disrupting tours, and then things like valentine’s day cards to administration. There are different levels to it and you do want to be really strategic...You want to make sure that you are being really intentional with your escalation...such as ‘Our campaign has been running for two years and admin are have not been listening to us, so this is why we have to escalate to this level.’”
RISHAB: Direct action should be used deliberately and carefully. While powerful, it also has the potential to alienate student campaigns from the administrators, get campaign teams disciplined and in trouble, and close off conversations to administration members. Oftentimes, low level escalation strategies are fine throughout the campaign, but actions that directly make the administration’s life harder and/or hurt the university’s image may backfire on the campaign. Organizers use hard-core tactics like disrupting board meetings only after a long period of time in which administrators are closed off to conversations. In a way, true direct action is a last ditch effort and organizers want to avoid it.
CYNTHIA KAUFFMAN: “One mistake that student organizers make all the time is that education and getting people to know is what matters, but it’s not. It’s pressure. It’s about putting pressure on the right people”
KATHERINE:
Final step of your divestment movement – win. Okay, I’m sorry to be a downer, but your ‘win’ probably isn’t going to be one huge grand statement “we have divested all of our direct AND indirect investments from fossil fuels!” because the fossil fuel divestment movement is a long and hard battle. But, you’ll have a bunch of smaller wins along the way that can eventually lead to this big win. You have to keep going. Harvard’s divestment movement went on for more than a decade before Harvard’s administration announced that it would divest its direct investments from fossil fuels in 2021. The Harvard-Yale football game action had a decade of planning behind it. And there’s still work to be done. Harvard Management Company (the organization that manages Harvard’s assets) doesn’t have any direct investments in the fossil fuel industry and doesn’t plan to have any in the future, which is a big win. But it’s worth noting that Harvard Management Company has a bunch of external partnerships that manage most of its assets. So its indirect investments are still a question.
Divestment is a long and challenging battle, but it’s something that we as students and young people can make a huge change on. So it’s worth it.
Thanks for listening to this episode!