University divestment from fossil fuels is not merely a symbolic move but an effective one, according to Lily Fleming, vice president of Climate Justice at Boston College (CJBC). “Our endowment is approximately 3.5 billion [as of 2023],” Fleming, LSEHD ’25, said. “Fossil fuels investments were estimated to be about 7 percent of the endowment in…
The primary goal of Boston College’s investments is to grow the University’s endowment, not to champion social or political causes like divestment, Lindsay Meier, environmental and sustainability policy coordinator, shared at the UGBC Senate meeting on Tuesday night.
During my six years at Boston College, a lot has changed. The student body has continuously grown in diversity, BC began participating in Questbridge, and LGBTQ+ students now have their own dedicated staff member integrated into the Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center (BAIC).
Climate Justice at BC (CJBC) and UGBC co-hosted an event on Wednesday in honor of Global Divestment Day, calling for the University to divest from fossil fuels.
Yet, while BC seems so publicly driven by the Catholic faith, it is clear that the University’s administration does not place the faith first when it comes to fossil fuel divestment.
I was horrified but not shocked to learn that the CEO of ExxonMobil recently spoke at the Boston College Chief Executives Club.
Members of CJBC and a crowd of students gathered at the entrance of O’Neill Library for the protest on Tuesday night.
When EcoPledge Co-President Maureen Kelly took over the Boston College Instagram story at the Earth Day fair on Friday afternoon, no one gave her any restrictions about what content to post, she said. But when Kelly posted a video of Climate Justice at BC (CJBC) explaining its mission and advocating for BC to divest from fossil fuels, it was taken down immediately, she said.
CJBC, alongside the Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) of BC, FACES, BC Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), EcoPledge of BC, and Real Food BC, hosted a town hall to explain fossil fuel divestment and why they’re fighting for it.
It would take immense public action, like the storming of protesters at the Harvard–Yale football game, to give divestment the publicity it needs at Boston College, according to Climate Justice at Boston College (CJBC) president Audrey Kang.
