Student group to hold info meetings on divestment during Earth Week

The Associated Students club Students for Renewable Energy Club at Western Washington University is holding two divestment faculty and staff teach-ins on campus during Earth Week.

The events will take place from 4 to 5 p.m. Monday, April 21, in Viking Union Room 464, and 4 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, in VU 552.

Jill MacIntyre Witt of 350.org and The Climate Reality Project will give a presentation on behalf of SRE on the basics of divestment from fossil fuels and how Western’s faculty and staff can lend their voices and support to the SRE's ongoing campaign to divest Western.

“Faculty and staff at WWU represent a key voice in the divestment movement, one that hasn’t yet received much recognition,” said Jenny Godwin, co-president of SRE.

SRE has been working to help Western join the international movement of colleges and universities divesting from the fossil fuel industry. Last month, the Associated Students Board of Directors voted unanimously to urge the WWU Foundation to divest and remove financial ties from activities based on the extraction of fossil fuels, asking the Foundation board to commit to an immediate freeze of new investments and a five-year divestment plan for existing investments. They have asked for a decision by the end of 2014.

Go online for more information about the history of divestment at WWU and the AS vote. Information on divestment itself also is available at that site. A petition for divestment at Western is online here.