Video Credit: The Daily Free Press
Marsh Chapel became a protest ground on Wednesday, March 1, as students and workers representing Boston University gathered to protest multiple aspects of the Trump administration, from ties to the fossil fuel industry to a demonstrated desire to further, in the words of protesters, “corporatize higher education.”
According to the Daily Free Press, approximately 100 protesters attended the rally, which was co-hosted by Divest BU, Massachusetts Interfaith Worker Justice, Make Boston University a Sanctuary School, and Student Labor Action Project at BU, all organizations that have been galvanized to action by stances taken by Trump’s White House.
Their goals? To push BU toward accepting “sanctuary campus” designation, divesting its endowment from the fossil fuel industry, and negotiating with faculty unions to improve conditions for faculty members and campus workers, as well as taking a more rigid stance about cracking down on instances of Islamophobia on campus.
One issue inflaming protesters was BU President Robert Brown’s recent refusal to hold a meeting with leaders of Divest BU, who’ve sent two members each day since January 31 to Brown’s office in hopes of engaging him face-to-face.
The group hopes to persuade members of BU’s Board of Trustees to divest endowment funds from the fossil fuel industry, an agenda item that has been prominently thrust forward by fears of backward slides in addressing the climate change crisis following Trump’s election.
BU has taken some steps to address environmental concerns over the years, such as creating the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (ACSRI) as well as (on that committee’s recommendation) a more recent task force, titled the Climate Action Plan, tasked with addressing ways to reduce energy use and actively aid in remedying environmental issues. However, BU has been loathe to take a firm stance against investments in the fossil fuel industry, only stating that it would endorse avoiding such investments on a “best efforts” basis, the Daily Free Press reported last month.
Divest BU has been dissatisfied with Brown’s response to their demands, explaining that the university has yet to incorporate one of the ACSRI’s proposals: divesting from “companies that continue to explore for fossil fuel reserves of any kind.”
At the rally, The Daily Free Press interviewed Masha Vernik, a BU sophomore and member of Divest BU, who said:
“I am not a profit margin, President Brown. I am a community member whose voice must be heard if we want this university to make the right decisions to benefit us and the world around us.”
Protesters pushed for progress on other issues plaguing BU’s campus. A speaker addressing amending BU’s current practice of negotiating semester-to-semester deals with adjuncts that don’t address disparities in course prices, and asked the university to address widely alleged unfair treatment of faculty and staff across campus.
The issue of “sanctuary campuses” has spread across the United States since the inauguration. Though such designation is largely symbolic, activists in favor of schools naming themselves “sanctuary campuses” for undocumented students and workers say that support of the movement conveys a willingness to defend such individuals targeted by the administration’s discriminatory policies. BU currently lacks any policy designed to protect undocumented students and workers – a point protesters repeatedly addressed.
The Boston Collegian 