Minutes – 2021-11-30

ESA Subcommittee on WSU Fossil Fuel Divestment

Meeting Minutes, November 30, 2021

Present: Stephen Fawcett, Ryan Culp, Mason Burns, Simon Smith

The status of the WSU student survey posted on November 17th or 18th was discussed.  To date about 1,000 students have responded and with a clear percentage answering “yes,” they believe WSU should divest their endowment funds from fossil fuel companies.  As of November 18th, the percentage of “yes” responses was 71.25%.  In addition to publicizing the survey beforehand to the WSU faculty, several student organizations, including the Associated Students of WSU, publicized it to their members via Instagram.  It was decided that the survey would run until the end of the week of November 28th.

Stevie reported that The Daily Evergreen recently published an article which included the part of his interview referring to the fossil fuel divestment campaign and survey.  The article was about reducing our carbon footprint and appeared on November 18th.  He sent the link for distribution to the group.

The group discussed the public comments by Mason and Ryan at the end of the November 19th Board of Regents meeting.  President Shultz was in attendance.  Both the current results of the survey and the request for a meeting with the WSU Foundation Investment Committee were covered by the comments. 

The first three items from Dr. Brian Henning’s suggestions on fossil-fuel divestment organizing were discussed.  Dr. Henning, a leader in the Fossil Free Gonzaga campaign, sent the suggestions to Bill on November 27th.  The group decided to:

  • set as our ultimate goal full divestment (from coal, oil, and natural gas companies)
  • not plan to settle for a compromise on this goal.  However, we would plan to offer suggestions for alternative green energy source companies for investing in.
  • set as our bottom-line divestment from the Carbon Underground 200, the 100 coal and 100 oil and natural gas companies globally ranked by their potential carbon emissions based on their stated reserves.  This has been the standard minimum divestment demand in campaigning worldwide.
  • not set an initial timeframe for WSU’s decision to divest, though we may want to set a timeframe as a negotiating tool later

To help answer the questions on the composition of WSU’s endowment and how it’s invested, Mason offered to share WSU’s Public Records statement on its investments with his brother, who is a student of finance.  Bill received the statement from the WSU Office of Public Records in June, 2021.  In addition, Simon indicated he will contact the Attorney General at WSU to confirm who runs the endowment and is our target group.  Bill will ask Dr. Henning if he can advise the group on how to access the information on the endowment and investment method.  He and Simon will also ask members of the WSU Foundation whom they know for their help with this.

The group plans to discuss implementing the rest of Dr. Henning’s suggestions at the next meeting.  The tentative date is Tuesday, January 18, 2022.

(prepared by Bill Engels)