By CLAY DUCLOS
STAFF WRITER

Following their first ever pre­sentation in front of the entire Board of Trustees this past Fri­day, lead members of DivestSLU expressed optimism in how divestment will be carried out in the future of St. Law­rence’s finance management. The club hosted several events this past week lead­ing up to their meeting with the Board to further boost campus awareness and sup­port – over 50 percent of the student body has already signed their petition.

Last Monday and Wednesday two vid­eos were released across social media platforms to call students to action. The first video filmed involved sev­eral supporting students speak­ing their feelings towards cli­mate change and the world’s need for a social movement against it.

Each student echoed the same final line: “The time for change is now.”

The other video was a streamed chat with acclaimed author and environmental ac­tivist Bill McKibben, who reit­erated the social and financial significance of divesting SLU’s endowment from fossil fuels.

“I look forward to the day we [can] toast each other with good North Country beer the day St. Lawrence decides that it’s go­ing to join everyone else in this work,” McKibben expresses in his closing comment. Both vid­eos of McKibben’s message and of students speaking out can be viewed on the DivestSLU Face­book page.

Last Tuesday, the club held a well-attended showing of “This Changes Everything” in the Winston Room. The documen­tary, based off Naomi Klein’s best-selling book of the same name, deals with the complex relationship between capitalism and environmental degrada­tion.

On Thursday, the eve of the Board of Trustees meeting, DivestSLU put on a panel dis­cussion titled “Climate, Policy, and the Economy: the Future of US Energy.” Three panelists spoke to the crowded lecture hall: Dr. Dave Murphy, a pro­fessor of Environmental Studies and Energy here at SLU; Clara Vondrich, the global director of Invest-Divest Philanthropy and head of the NYC chapter of 350.org (McKibben’s own organiza­tion), and Ken Marienau, CEO of Mission Markets Investing and former VP of E*Trade.

Dr. Murphy spoke of the en­vironmental and climatic is­sues we, as a capitalist, ener­gy-demanding society, have brought upon the world, and the need for a large-scale tran­sition toward alternative energy sources. Vondrich shared her sentiment that divesting is an effective means of pressuring governments and industries to change significantly.

As an historical example, Vondrich brought up how the apartheid government in South Africa was coerced into dis­banding in the 1990’s after US investors pulled out of South African markets.

Furthermore, she and Marienau both emphasized their feelings that coal, oil, and natural gas are currently risky, volatile markets to be invested in. Marienau expanded by ex­plaining the contemporary evolution of ‘fiduciary respon­sibility’, which should now, he contends, “include environ­mental and ethical costs in all financial decisions.”

DivestSLU presented a panel talk to the Board of Trustees on Friday morning. The presenta­tion was framed on SLU’s mor­al, fiduciary, and environmental responsibility to no longer profit off the exploitation of fossil fu­els. Receptions from the board members were mixed, but they all seemed to be excited of the student body’s overwhelming support of divestment. Discus­sions on divesting endowment funds will continue at the Board meeting this coming spring. In the meantime, DivestSLU plans to increase campus support by adding more signatures to their petition. Stay tuned for more divestment events in the com­ing months.