But Northwestern University has previously rejected similar proposals
Northwestern University should become “fossil free” and stop using oil, gas, and coal, according to a campus activist group.
It is just one of the demands of Fossil Free NU, which called the university a “$14 billion corporate polluter” in an essay laying out its demands. Fossil Free NU describes itself as “a group of students, staff and faculty demanding university divestment from fossil fuels and sustainability in the university’s energy output.”
This comes after advertising a petition all over campus calling for Northwestern to make its sustainability reports more transparent and transition to renewable energy. The activists also want the university to “eliminate direct on-campus greenhouse gas emissions,” according to another list of demands.
It appears that Fossil Free NU is not an official student organization at Northwestern since it does not appear on the Wildcat Connection, the official student organizations page.
The group did not respond to multiple requests for information sent via email and to specific group leaders in the past month. The College Fix asked about next steps and if the group had any success working with campus officials.
The university did not respond to multiple emails sent in the past two weeks asking about the demands.
However, a New York University professor who has written a number of books about investments and corporate finance criticized the students’ demands and the goals of the “environmental, social, governance” agenda. He suggested the students read a recent article he wrote about what “sustainability” really entails.
Northwestern University “should offer a quid quo pro for students who demand that the endowment funds divest and demand the following in return,” Professor Aswath Damodaran said via email.
He said:
(1) Any student who is getting financial aid from the school should drop out of the divest now group, since they are the beneficiaries of the endowment; (2) All students in the divest now group should stop using any power that comes from fossil fuels; (3) Any students who live a distance away from NU should either drive electric cars from where they live (if they live on the US mainland) or use boats (if they are overseas students); and (4) All students in the group should become vegans immediately.
In regards to the first suggestion, Damodaran said “students who think that the endowment is theirs to begin with are behaving like restaurant customers who demand the right to decide what appliances should be used in the restaurant kitchen.”
He says “if [they think] fossil fuel is evil, then [they] should not be living off it.”
Another environmental expert also criticized the demands.
The director of the Heartland Institute’s Center on Climate and Environmental Policy says schools have bigger problems to worry about.
Sterling Burnett says Northwestern “shouldn’t Kowtow to student protesters and their shifting liberal politics and political targets… in investment/divestment decisions.”
“Rather it should take care of its endowment and its ability to fund operations, retain and attract stellar faculty, including researchers, and provide financial aid and scholarships when appropriate to students,” Burnett, who regularly comments on climate issues, told The Fix.
Professor Damodaran gave similar comments, saying the protesters’ agenda would have “absolutely no impact on climate change, and moves like this actually get in the way of doing the things that actually matter.”
The environmental group has tried for years to get the school to adapt its goals.
Fossil Free NU’s efforts on this matter were previously rejected, according to the group’s website. In 2019, it sent a similar proposal to Northwestern’s Advisory Committee. The Board of Trustees officially rejected the proposal in February 2020.
The 2019 proposal urged “Northwestern [to] follow a ‘stop, drop, and roll’ policy as has been pursued by other leading universities.”
“This would encompass an immediate halt in future investments from fossil fuel extraction and sales companies, a five-year period to drop existing investments, and rolling out a reinvestment plan in renewable energy companies.”
MORE: Student group wants to ban ‘fossil fuel lawyers’ from law schools
IMAGES: Rena Schild/Shutterstock.com; Jeanine Yuen for The College Fix
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