By Scotty Schenck, photo editor
Harvard students dedicated to divesting the school’s money from stocks and corporations associated with fossil fuels blocked all of the openings to University Hall on Tuesday
Almost 25 people stopped access to the building in Harvard Yard where administrative offices are located, according to the Boston Globe The blockade is part of Harvard Heat Week, a call to stop the university’s $36.4 billion endowment, the largest of all higher education institutions in the world, from finding its way to companies involved in fossil fuels. The website for Heat Week says there is “no room for neutrality” regarding climate change.
On Sunday, 500 protesters stood outside Massachusetts Hall, where other top administrators work. According to the International Business Times, they plan to block the entrance through Friday. Administrators had to find somewhere else to work, according to the Globe.
Harvard University officials have said climate change is a serious problem, according to a statement by their spokesman Jeff Neal given to the Globe on Tuesday. In this statement, Neal also said the school has given supporters of divestment adequate opportunities to voice their opinions.
Students from Divest Harvard, backed by 350.org, a grassroots organization dedicated to fighting climate change, feel the protests are necessary.
“Being here is saying to the administration that their inaction on divestment is simply unacceptable,” Opie told the International Business Times. “We’re not calling for anymore. We’re calling for full divestment.”
President Drew Faust has been peeved by the movement before, feeling the actions taken by Divest Harvard are not the most effective in combatting climate change.
“I wish [Divest Harvard] would focus on accomplishing what we want to accomplish, which is to have an effect on climate change,” Faust said in an interview with The Crimson on March 30. “They seem to be focused on almost to the point of forgetting about what the outcome for such an action would be.”
Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons.
