Photo by Kate Turner ’21
On Feb. 13, students walked out of class to demand that the Board of Trustees vote to divest from fossil fuels.
From Feb. 27 to Feb. 29, the Mount Holyoke College Board of Trustees met in New York City for their annual spring Board meeting.
Following this meeting, the Trustees scheduled a phone call for March 2 between the Mount Holyoke Climate Justice Coalition (CJC) and the majority of the Board’s Investment Committee (IC) to discuss Mount Holyoke’s current investments in the fossil fuel industry.
The CJC is an organization seeking to redirect the College’s investments away from the fossil fuel industry. Currently, as much as six percent of Mount Holyoke’s $777.7 million endowment — totaling nearly $50,000 — is indirectly invested in the fossil fuel industry, according to the College’s website.
“CJC members called with members of the Investment Committee [of the Board of Trustees] Monday, March 2. The Board did not commit to putting divestment back on the agenda despite 300 students walking out, peer institutions divesting and broad alum and staff support,” the CJC wrote in a statement to the Mount Holyoke News. “It’s time for Mount Holyoke College to get with the times and divest. We as students will not rest until we have an endowment that reflects our values.”
“The Board of Trustees is kept apprised of student concerns and was made aware of the recent walkout in support of divestment, as well as of the conversation scheduled with members of the Investment Committee,” said President Stephens in a statement to the Mount Holyoke News. “The IC has heard of the concerns, and is committed to reviewing the matter again and to reporting back to the whole Board on that review at their next meeting in May.”
“We are impressed by student leadership on this issue and by your calls to action, and acknowledge that climate change is real and requires a meaningful response,” Stephens continued in her statement. “While the IC is pursuing more ESG investments, and while it conducts this full review, we will continue to move forward with a range of environmental efforts on campus.”
Typically, President of the College Sonya Stephens sends a message to community members summarizing the contents of regular meetings in the weeks after they take place. However, beyond this summary, meeting minutes are sealed. Following this policy, the Board of Trustees refused to share minutes of their most recent meeting with the Mount Holyoke News.
The Board holds three meetings per academic year: one in September, one in February and one in early May. Though according to the Trustees’ bylaws, the organization is required to hold “at least three regular meetings each year,” there are no specific requirements outlined regarding these meetings’ locations.
According to Senior Advisor to the President and Secretary of the College Lenore Reilly, the location of the Feb. 27 meeting of the Trustees was determined during their Sept. 29 meeting. “At the September meeting this year, the Board was polled about meeting off-campus for a retreat, and New York was the favored location,” Reilly said. “[The Trustees] sometimes meet offsite for the winter session in a location that [is] easier for everyone to get to,” Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Involvement Alicia Erwin explained. “They will be back on campus in early May,” Erwin added.
The February Trustee meeting followed widespread on-campus action in favor of Mount Holyoke’s divestment, broadly organized by the CJC.
On Feb. 13, the CJC organized a student protest for National Fossil Fuel Divestment Day, a day of activism founded by Divest Ed, a national training and strategy hub for student fossil fuel divestment campaigns. Over 300 Mount Holyoke students walked out of class and work to protest at Blanchard Campus Center that afternoon.
During the Feb. 13 rally, organizers encouraged students to attend the Feb. 27 meeting of the Board of Trustees to directly urge them to divest the College from its investment in fossil fuels. How- ever, the meeting had been scheduled since September 2019 to take place off campus.
Later, the CJC urged students to call Stephens to express disappointment that the Board meeting would not be held on campus.
“Let [Stephens] know you are disappointed that the Board of Trustees isn’t meeting on campus and that we deserve a more accountable Board,” read a call to action the CJC circulated online. Since then, the CJC has doubled their efforts to organize on campus, most recently asking students, staff, and alums to pledge to withhold all donations to the College until it divests from the fossil fuel industry.
“Since we posted the link yesterday, almost 100 new responses have come in,” said Dinah Schipper ’21, a member of the CJC.
Meanwhile, the Trustees have not commented on divestment since they voted against it in 2017. Aside from Stephens, no members of the Board responded when asked for comment on the subject by the Mount Holyoke News.
Besides Amherst College, Mount Holyoke is the only member of the Five College Consortium that has not divested from the fossil fuel industry.
“They are aware of [our] actions so far, including last month’s walkout and rally attended by 300-plus students,” Schipper said. “The Board did not commit to putting divestment back on the agenda, so we encourage students to keep putting pressure on them to do so.”