Nearly three years after its founding, Climate Justice at Boston College (CJBC) received formal recognition from the University today and—with its new status as a registered student organization—the ability to register protests, post approved fliers, and stage formal meetings on campus. The Office of Student Involvement (OSI) approved the activist group (formerly known at BC Fossil Free) following two semesters of organized efforts by student leaders to get the club recognized. The organization has been the focal point of a campus-wide discussion on the current inability of unregistered groups to stage protests and publicize events at BC.
CJBC has been working with OSI since last semester to gain status as a registered student organization. The organization was approved by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College in the spring.
The group gained prominence on campus this past school year, when it staged a series of vigils, protests, and educational events to press Boston College to divesting its endowment from fossil fuels. Although CJBC is a non-hierarchical group, OSI requires it to register officers, so the group had to designate two co-presidents and a treasurer to be approved. To the group, these roles mean that the officers act as administrative liaisons.
“We are looking forward to the privileges that come with being an RSO, including the right to hold a permitted demonstration and to be officially acknowledged by other groups on campus,” said co-president Delia Ridge Creamer, MCAS ’16.
