BRATTLEBORO — Students at the School for International Training are campaigning to have SIT divest itself from fossil fuels.
The students are talking with administrators and board of the school's parent nonprofit, World Learning, to get the institution to divest the portion of its $48.5 million endowment that is invested in fossil fuel companies.
World Learning is a nonprofit corporation that includes the SIT Graduate Institute, SIT Study Abroad, and the Experiment in International Living in Brattleboro, as well as the International Development and Exchange Programs in Washington, D.C.
Divestment is the opposite of investment - in this case, dropping stocks, bonds, and investment funds in fossil fuel companies.
The movement, which began on college campuses across the country, has spread to churches, municipalities, and foundations.
Five New England colleges have already committed to divest: Maine's College of the Atlantic and Unity College, Massachusetts' Hampshire College, and Vermont's Green Mountain and Sterling colleges.
Efforts are also underway at Marlboro College to divest from fossil fuels. Clark said SIT Graduate Institute would be the first graduate institute in Vermont to divest from fossil fuel companies.
“World Learning envisions a just world driven by engaged citizens in thriving communities and to empower people by strengthening institutions through education, development and exchange programs,” said said Caitlyn Clark, who, along with Maye Quilty and Preston Peck, started the campaign on campus.
“World Learning operates in 70-plus countries around the world and a lot of the communities they work in are seeing the effects of climate change firsthand,” Clark said.
Student activists see this campaign as “staying true to the mission of what is our impact in the rest of the world,” she added.
Quilty was working on a divestment campaign with 350.org, an international campaign to decrease fossil fuel emissions by 350 parts per million, the amount needed to decrease carbon dioxide concentration in the Earth's atmosphere, and introduced the campaign to SIT graduate students.
According to the students, 200 publicly traded companies hold the vast majority of the world's fossil fuel reserves.
Quilty, Clark, and Peck proposed the idea and many students were open to it. SIT Green Up was launched, dedicated to the goal of achieving divestment from fossil fuel companies here. Student organizers said they saw this as way of making a difference on campus during the 10-month on-campus phase of their program.
The three met with administrators in May. Clark characterized the discussion as productive:
“We set up a different timeline where they put together an investment committee that would look into into divestment and bring recommendations to the next board meeting in October. The whole time has been a very collaborative, transparent conversation between us, the board, and faculty and staff. It's been great.”
The breakdown of World Learning's $48.5 million endowment was not available, but World Learning President and CEO Don Steinberg said that a small percentage is invested in fossil fuel companies. They added that NEPC, an independent investment consulting firm in Boston, sets the investments for World Learning.
Steinberg said the decision to divest will come down to the board.
“They don't have a timetable for the decision as to where to go in this effort,” Steinberg said in a phone interview. “The key question here is, What is the board's mandate? As with almost every board in America in the academic world, they have a very simple mandate: […] maximize the return on the endowment in order to facilitate the good work [SIT/World Learning does], not only as an educational institution but also as the global NGO. That is their principal mandate at this point.”
Jeff Unsicker, a public policy professor at the SIT Graduate Institute, has also been involved in the dialogue with SIT administrators and World Learning board members. Unsicker said a successful advocacy campaign, based on collaboration and negotiation, includes long-term, intermediate, and immediate goals.
He said their long-term goal is to reduce carbon emissions through limiting the power of fossil fuel corporations to influence national and international policies.
Their intermediate goal is to contribute to a diverse divestment movement that raises the Americans' awareness of public and policy makers and how institutions are contributing to a diverse divestment movement.
Their immediate goal is to influence the SIT/World Learning board and add momentum to the movement.
According to Unsicker, SIT Green-Up organizers covered their bases.
“Student organizers began with a thorough analysis of the relevant policy makers, i.e., the World Learning board and its investment committee. In addition, nearly every on-campus student signed a divestment petition and the faculty assembly unanimously endorsed their position,” Unsicker wrote in an email.
He continued:
“They also gathered input from the admissions and marketing departments. They then worked with top-level [administration] to set up a meeting with the board chair and the chair of its Investments Committee. In those meetings, they began with a collaborative strategy of education and negotiation.”
Even if the board doesn't decide in October to divest, Unsicker said he is optimistic.
“To be fair to them [the board], there are some real policy and technical challenges in [divesting]. However, I think there is good evidence that divestment will not hurt the overall performance of the portfolio, and I think the board will accept that it's the students - not us old folks - who will live with the consequences of climate change.”
Steinberg was unsure if the board will make a decision by October, but he said they are not taking the idea off the table.
“There's basically no disagreement in terms of the need to be environmentally sustainable. The question now is, How best do we as a global institution pursue that goal? Divestment is one option,” Steinberg said.
Peck and Clark said they're in it for the long haul: Peck said he will commit to the divestment campaign away from SIT. He was just hired to be a policy advocate for Toxic Free North Carolina.
“We've been trying to work with the board in a cordial, collaborative, and transparent manner. We'd like to keep that going. We've invested so much time and effort into this,” Peck said.
Clark, who is now in the practicum/internship phase of her SIT degree program, is the first SIT intern to work on a divestment campaign at SIT. It is a paid six-month internship geared toward seeing the school divested of fossil fuels.
“I'm filing a timeline of what we've done, who we connected with, and what we've been working on. All the information will be there so it will be continued,” Clark said.
Clark said it is another example of World Learning being willing to work with students toward their ultimate goal: divestment from fossil fuels.
“It just seems to make sense from World Learning's perspective and from what we're learning in our classes as graduate students. Even if you look at our campus being in Vermont, which is trying to be 90 percent renewable by 2050, we're leading in energy efficiency,” Clark said.
“It makes sense to continue in that direction,” she added. “There isn't one reason SIT and World Learning shouldn't divest from fossil fuels.”