Volume 80, Issue 21 Web Edition
SERVING BREVARD COLLEGE SINCE 1935
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February 25, 2015
Stepping in and
Standing out Nationaliy
BC becomes the first college in the Southeast to commit to divestment
By Joshua Cole
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Brevard College has made the commitment
to divest from fossil fuels. This is now common
knowledge, as it’s been reported in the Huffington
Post, on WCQS, and distributed throughout media
outlets by the Associated Press and published at
local papers like The Transylvania Times and
The Asheville Citizen Times. BC is now the first
college in the Southeast to commit to divestment
by 2018. Junior, Jamie Ellisor, one of the students
that helped lead the movement toward divestment,
said, “The fact that we beat Carolina, Duke, and
Davidson, that’s a really big deal because those
are bigger schools.’’
Divestment is essentially the opposite of
investment; it is usually employed to effect
a change financially or socially. In the past,
educational institutions have divested from
tobacco and even companies that invested in the
South African apartheid regime.
Though colleges and universities by themselves
couldn’t enact enough change to affect the
apartheid govt., they were able to sway public
opinion and with it, companies saw that it was
not good for public relations in the U.S. to
continue supporting the apartheid govt, of South
Africa. Educational institutions were able to
raise awareness and illuminate apartheid actions
through divestment.
"For me, and I think the students, our school
divesting from fossil fuels tells the nation, that we
as an institution of higher learning, are dedicated
to doing what is right by humanity in the fight
against climate change for a better future," said
senior Emily Crowley, one of the leading students
in BC’s divestment movement.
Forbes published an article on Feb. 23
concerning the on-going divestiture battle taking
place now at Flarvard University, titled A Lesson
for Harvard Students: Fossil Fuel Divestment
won't Save the Planet. The article goes on to
suggest that divestment will not change the
climate, nor will it have a large enough impact on
the fossil fuel industry to cause them any distress.
Rory Northam, a senior at BC and originally
from South Africa, suggested that those in
opposition to divestment are missing the point.
“Divestment for students at BC is about setting
a social and ethical precedent for others”, said
Northam. “It sends a message to the fossil fuel
industry and to everybody around the U.S. that
higher education institutions and the youth of the
future don’t want to be associated with the fossil
fuel industry.”
BC’s mission statement is largely focused on
creating a unique learning experience focused
on experiential education. "This is a teachable
moment; we teach the students, but the students
also teach us,” BC President David Joyce said.
“The work they did on this divestment campaign
beautifully embodies our mission statement. You
see the lights come on in the students' eyes, when
they realize they have the knowledge and power
to make a real difference... this is why so many
of us at this College went into higher education
in the first place."
The Board of Trustees Chair, Donald Moore
couldn't agree more, "The students were proactive
and respectful," he recalled. "They dialoged
with us rather than made demands. They were
passionate but also highly professional; they knew
what they were talking about."
The idea for divestment at BC began in the
spring of 2013. Later in April, students met
with Joyce to discuss possibilities about how
to proceed. After summer break, when school
reconvened in the fall of2013, students organized
a sit-in at the school cafeteria and collected around
250 student signatures along with signatures from
various faculty members.
During the spring semester of 2014, 20-30
people gathered at the cafeteria with candles;
Ellisor said that they received a lot of support
from BC Greens, Facebook, faculty and other
community members in favor of divesting. After
the fall semester started in August of 2014 the
petition was again circulated and they received
an additional 100 signatures which constitutes
nearly half of the school’s population.
Later in the fall they had their final sit-in at the
library where local media helped to cover the
event; Joyce was present to address the sit-in and
multiple students abstained from attending class
in favor of attending the sit-in.
Ellisor explained that Jim Reynolds, or JR,
helped BC’s divestment movement to go forward
along with the help of Joyce who acted as an
advisor for the students when they went to present
their ideas to the board of trustees late in the fall
of2014.
On Feb. 13 of 2015, global divestment day,
the students held a rally. That Friday happened
to be a cold, yet sunny day, which brought out a
lot of supporters. Crowley, addressed the crowd,
“I’m calling on the students of BC to use their
powerful and inspirational voices to ignite change
on this campus to start a large scale movement
for divestment in N.C.” Jerry Stone, head of the
investor committee, and supporter of the move to
divest, was also in attendance.
Stone previously owned a fossil fuel business.
He felt confident that the school would be able
to find alternatives to the investments BC has in
fossil fuels and hopes to create a “green fund”
within the next few years.
Seven days later, on Feb. 20, BC announced
their decision to divest from fossil fuels. "One of
the keys to our success was our close relationships
with the administration," observed Crowley. "We
never saw this as an 'us versus them’ situation,
but rather as something that we were all working
toward together. The divestment of our institution
could not have happened without the cooperation
and support the students got from the board
of trustees, and the administration." Ellisor
hopes that Brevard, as a town, might follow the
college’s lead, and choose to divest from fossil
fuels eventually.