Minutes from Fossil Free WSU Meeting on February 14, 2023
Present: Stevie Smith, Abby Owens, Ryan Culp, Daniel Howell, Gil Rezin, Bill Engels
1. Outcome of Presentation to ISC
Stevie reported that his and Mason’s presentation to the International Students Council went well: 5 of the 9 people who attended signed the petition and Qualtrics was used to set up the form for signing by the group representative, who planned to get back to Stevie about signing it. Since he had not heard from other groups about scheduling a presentation, he planned to contact the groups’ faculty advisors. Bill mentioned that Marc, Chair of Asian Pacific American Student Coalition, told him he was interested in scheduling a meeting.
2. Guardian Article
Abby reported not finding any updates on WSU’s investments since the 2017 article “Top US universities use offshore funds to grow their huge endowments.” Ryan said he had done research on EnCap, the particular offshore hedge fund mentioned in the article, and confirmed they were major financial backers of fossil fuel companies. Bill shared that Dr. Hellegers indicated she wasn’t aware of any more recent reports on the investments. He also shared that, in looking over what he received from WSU’s Public Records office in 2021, he did not find EnCap listed but did find three offshore entities. He will post another request at WSU’s Public Records office and write to Mike Connell, CEO of WSU Foundation to inquire.
3. Sustainability Task Force
Daniel shared that he had spoken informally with Jason Sampson, a co-chair of the Task Force, who said that they are waiting for approval from the chancellors at other WSU campuses on certain items. After the approval, Jason will be able to share updates regarding the Task Force with FFWSU. Stevie said that Jason said he should be able to attend our March 14th meeting and he will contact Jason to confirm this.
4. Student Petition
A total of 854 persons had signed (14 more than at the time of our last meeting). The petition is still being displayed on the electronic signs on campus. Bill said he had posted yesterday 5 paper fliers with the petition in the CUB. He was told they would remain up through the semester; he will check this periodically.
5. Faculty Petition
Bill said he had looked at the email that accompanied the student petition and realized it would need to be revised for the faculty. He said he would do this, using wording and information from the Divestment Resolution draft. He would send the revision to Stevie for his review.
6. Divestment Resolution Draft and Cougar Investment Fund
Bill did not have any updates on the draft and had not yet written the letter inquiring about the Fund.
7. Social and Environmental Justice Conference
This spring’s SJCON, “Native Sovereignty, Decolonization, Divestment, Reparations, and Environmental Justice: Coalitions at the Intersections,” will include fossil fuel divestment as a topic. Stevie will bring up ESA’s possible co-sponsorship of the conference at the meeting on the 16th. Bill invited the FFWSU members in attendance to consider presenting a paper and said he would send them the call for papers.
8. Rally and March in April
The group decided to hold the event on the Thursday of Earth Week at WSU. Daniel suggested the ideas of wearing costumes or holding tree branches.
9. Governor Inslee’s Talk on February 17th
Gil announced that the Governor would speak on housing and clean energy at 12:15 pm in Bryan Hall on campus. Several members indicated they would try to attend.
Next Meeting: Tuesday, February 28th, 6 pm, in CUB 310
Fossil Free WSU 