A group of University of Oregon students is holding a sit-in at Johnson Hall on campus. They want the U of O Foundation to divest from fossil fuels.
The students have been occupying the lobby of Johnson Hall, which houses U of O President Michael Schill’s office, for 10 days.
Student organizer Kaia Hazard says they want Schill to publically urge the foundation to stop investing in fossil fuels. Hazard says climate change is the most important issue of her generation. She says grass roots action is necessary.
Hazard: “It’s also important for these large, powerful institutions such as the UO Foundation divest from fossil fuels in order to show that they are moving away from a system that relies so heavily on this destructive form of energy towards a more renewable system.”
The University Foundation’s CEO Paul Weinhold issued a statement in response to the students’ Campaign. It says the foundation considers climate change to be one of the most important issues of our time and invests accordingly but that divesting is not an effective strategy.
