Students in DivestNU unveiled two banners in the Curry Student Center Monday as part of the national divestment movement’s day of action in response to the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump.

Seven students held banners at 5:30 p.m. over the edge of the third floor of Curry for about 15 minutes reading “Stop Funding Climate Change” and “Northeastern Profits From Climate Violence.” The protest was the latest in a series of demonstrations by DivestNU, a student-led campaign working to persuade the Northeastern administration to divest its endowment from the fossil fuel industry.

“We should keep the pressure up on our administration at Northeastern to let them know that we’re still here, we’re still fighting for divestment,” said Tyler Hall, a senior mechanical engineering student and DivestNU’s director of media.

While the university does not hold any direct investments in the fossil fuel industry, much of the school’s endowment is invested in comingled funds, which include some holdings in energy companies and other members of the fossil fuel industry.

A Northeastern spokesperson did not return a request for comment by press time.

The national day of action was coordinated by Go Fossil Free, a project launched by the  environmental organization 350, which aims to curb increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

“I think [Trump is] a climate denier or he’s apathetic toward it at least, and he’s not going to act in the way the world needs him to,” said Ben Tamarin, a sophomore communication studies major and DivestNU member.

Ben Vanderlan, a sophomore political science and environmental science combined major and DivestNU member, also expressed concern about Trump’s future actions on climate change. He said he believes institutions, such as Northeastern University, should take charge on environmental issues.

“Universities have even more of an obligation to defend climate science and be leaders in the fight against climate change and, thus, the fossil fuel industry,” Vanderlan said.

While members held the banners in Curry, Tamarin handed out flyers to students sitting in the indoor quad that expressed concern about Trump’s inauguration and his appointment of Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, as secretary of state.

“A lot of people haven’t heard about us yet, so we’re reaching out and getting people informed,” Tamarin said of the student group DivestNU.

This action was just one in a series of demonstrations by DivestNU over the past year. Prior actions included camping on Centennial Common for nearly two weeks last October and caroling outside of a holiday party at President Joseph E. Aoun’s Beacon Street home, singing rewritten climate-centric versions of classic holiday songs.

Unlike those actions, DivestNU members did not chant their usual messages, such as “Hey, Northeastern, clean up your mess. We’ll be here till you divest,” in order to avoid disturbing students who were studying in the student center.

“This is more of a visibility action,” Hall said.

Since DivestNU members are not confident that Trump will take action to curb the progression of global warming, they said they believe their mission—and the missions of other organizations like them—as more important than ever before.

“We can’t expect a lot of climate action from his administration,” Hall said. “That’s all going to have to come through on the state level and through grassroots efforts.”

Photo by Julia Preszler