Northeastern’s Council of University Programs, or CUP, and Sunrise Northeastern, a campus group dedicated to environmental activism, hosted the first Climate Justice Jam in over 10 years Oct. 6 in AfterHours.
The event featured 10 performances from student musicians and speakers representing the cause of the night: pushing Northeastern to divest and cut all ties with the fossil fuel industry.
“CUP and Sunrise have a lot of overlapping members because we share the same morality and mission: to build community on campus,” said Haylen Wehr, a second-year international business major and CUP member. “We partnered because of that shared mission: building a community supporting divestment.”
Despite claiming to be a green campus, students claim Northeastern has heavily invested in fossil fuels. Northeastern experts even agree that to work towards a greener future, those in power must disaffiliate from fossil fuel companies — however, the university doesn’t seem to be listening. In 2016, Northeastern told students that it invested $65 million in fossil fuels, according to an article published by Disorientation Northeastern, a coalition of student groups who seek to inform students on social issues at Northeastern. In response to pressure from the student body and staff, it allocated $25 million to sustainability.
However, students in Disorientation Northeastern were still unsatisfied, considering the money spent on sustainability wasn’t what they deemed a considerable amount– as it was “not even half” of the fossil fuel endowment. Today, students share the same frustration, begging the university to divest. “You can leave a legacy of justice by pledging to withhold any donations to Northeastern until they fully, transparently divest from the fossil fuel industry,” CUP and Sunrise wrote in a Google Form.
Other schools in the area, such as Boston University and Harvard University, divested from fossil fuels in 2021, leaving Northeastern students wondering what is taking so long. Students have continued to ask: If Northeastern prides itself on innovation and progressiveness, why aren’t they making appropriate steps toward becoming a “sustainable and just” university?
That question is what inspired the event. Around 30 students gathered to listen to student musicians play their music, many of whom were inspired to make songs related to climate change.
One student, Corinna Parrish, a fourth-year psychology and music combined major, performed two songs to express her concerns about the declining state of the world. In her free time, she is president of the Songwriting Club and participates in events like Climate Justice Jam to use music as a vehicle for self-expression.
Parrish and other participants believe music is a way to unite people and express frustrations in ways only music can.
“The night allowed these two unrepresented things at Northeastern — climate activism and the music community — to come together,” Parrish said. “I think really heavy topics are really hard to talk about a lot of the time, especially when they feel far away and unmanageable, so I feel like singing it as a way to figure out how you feel and a way people can take solace in it.”
Parrish performed a song she wrote titled “As the World Caves In,” expressing how it felt to see excessive flooding in her hometown this summer and how she dealt with the realization that long-term shifts in climate were becoming “very real.”
Students in Sunrise and CUP were incredibly grateful for their collaboration, as it provided a space and a larger audience for students to come together and sign the petition. An intimate semi-circular seating arrangement, red lighting and a high-quality sound system made the message loud and clear. The petition was projected onto the screen, making it easy and comfortable for students to interact and access it. The event met Sunrise’s expectations, allowing students to get involved separately from their usual meetings.
“The university has repeatedly shut this campaign down, and because so many aspects of this issue are so frustrating, we really try to emphasize within the movement that we have fun and take care of each other,” said Jonathan Bacdayan, a fourth-year environmental studies major and Sunrise member. “And what better way to do that than live music and open mics that are always well received?”
The open mic allowed speakers from both CUP and Sunrise to feel heard. The speakers emphasized the importance of events like the Climate Justice Jam, regardless of size or turnout, because, in the face of climate change, all people have is each other.
“We are students like everyone else, and anyone can be part of the movement,” Bacdayan said. “Even by showing up to events like this and scanning a QR code, you are making your voice heard.”
