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September 10, 2014
BC Greens: It's time for BC
to divest from fossil fuels
By Emily Crowley
Contributor
A little over a year ago, Professor James Reyn
olds (JR) brought the Divestment movement to
the attention of the BC community. Since then,
he has been urging the Board of Trustees to strip
the investments in fossil fuel companies from the
Endowments Portfolio. Divestment is an incred
ibly important piece to the progressive movement
towards ending our need, as individuals, a cam
pus, and a country, for fossil fuels.
It makes no sense for institutions of higher
learning to point out society’s evils, while at the
same time continuing to invest in companies that
exacerbate the problem. Science shows that the
major contributor to climate change is society’s
reliance on fossil fuels, even though the price of
clean solar and wind energy is competitive with
dirty energy.
The Divestment movement is a phenomenon
sweeping across college campuses, municipali
ties, religious organizations, foundations, and oth
er nonprofit organizations around the U.S. Ideally,
the divested funds would be redirected into clean
energy companies to help stifle Climate Change.
JR and the student organization BC Greens are
pushing for the Board of Trustees’ investment
committee to commit to divesting from fossil fuels
by the end of 2018 and stop future investments in
any oil, coal, and gas companies or their financial
backers. BC invests less than 5 percent of our
endowment in fossil fuels, so divestment should
be easy. But the act of divesting and the press it
will bring to BC and the movement at large will
have a great impact.
So far, no academic institutions in North
Carolina have divested from fossil fuels, and if
BC were the first it would not only set the prec
edent for others to do the same, but would tell
the country that BC is a school made of leaders,
movers, changers, and progressive enablers who
put their minds to something, and execute it. It is
our generation that will feel the repercussions of
climate change, and our generation who can make
the difference.
I ask you to go to the Divest Brevard Facebook
page and click “Like” to keep updated on events
and progress of the movement around the country
and around the world. We all chose to attend this
college because we feel like this is a unique place,
where we are taught to be leaders and to make a
difference in our world. This movement is one
huge way we can do that.
Emily Crowley is SGA vice president and co
president of BC Greens.
SGA plans and
preparation
By MacKenzIe Samotls
staff Writer
The first officiat Student Government As
sociation (SGA) meeting began at 9 p.m.,
Wednesday, September 3 in MG.
This year the students on campus can expect
the SGA members to be “the eyes, ears, and
doers on campus,” according to SGA President,
Burton Hodges. In this more casual gathering,
the SGA officers. Burton Hodges, Emily Crow
ley (Vice President), Nick Jowsey (Secretary),
Sam Blakley (Treasurer), and Heather Morris
(Speaker of the Clubs), discussed the respon
sibility of the SGA members and their roles.
In this “deliberative assembly” there is a Sen
ate made up of four different areas; residence
halls, student athletics, academic departments,
and first year students. It is the senators’ re
sponsibility to address the issues and needs, of
its department, to the general assembly and in
return get results.
An example of SGA’s collaboration was the
presentation of Emily Crowley as the new VP
of SGA. In a chaotic moment when the officers
got the news that the former VP of SGA, Steve
Olsen, was unable to return, they took action
and agreed that Crowley went beyond the ex
pectations for the job.
See 'SGA' on page 2
A message from the Clarion editor
Dear Readers,
You may have noticed changes in the first issues of the Clarion for the
fall semester, and the most obvious is that we have an all new senior staff.
Sam Blakley, our Managing Editor, is a Math and Integrated Studies ma
jor. Blakley’s dual talents for collaboration and organization propelled him
quickly from news writing to publication production.
Gabby Smith, an English major with a concentration in Literary Studies,
is our new Copy Editor. She specializes in opinion writing and debate.
Michael St. Marie, a senior Integrated Studies major who is well known
for his sleek, minimalistic graphics, is now playing his talents as Layout
and Design Editor for the length of his final semester. He will graduate in
December.
The second change is one that we, as senior staff, chose to instigate in
order to provide fresh opportunities for readership. Previously, this paper
was released on Friday, and we felt that as students abandoned campus each
weekend, the Clarion was left behind.
We will now distribute The Clarion on Wednesdays with hopes of provid
ing relevant mid-week insights into campus events and news as they happen.
This will be my only semester serving you as Editor, as I will enter student
teaching in Spring of 2015. 1 am an English major with a concentration in
Creative Writing with teaching licensure.
That said, the most exciting aspect of this position is the opportunity to
interact and collaborate with our readers and writers. I invite you to send
us your feedback in letters to the editor at clarion@brevard.edu, which we
may publish in the following issue. You can also follow us on Twitter at
@bcclarion.
If you are interested in writing for the Clarion, stop by in MG 102 at
9:30 on Friday morning. If you already have a class at that time, shoot us
an e-mail. We can work something out.
1 look forward to hearing from you.
Kara Fohner
Editor in Chief