Divestment protesters at Pitt enter fourth day
If you’re fighting for a cause and decide the best way to make a stand is to take a seat (as in on the floor, in public, indefinitely), be prepared to kill time — lots of it.
Soft cushioning for your backside wouldn’t hurt, either.
Since Friday, students prodding the University of Pittsburgh to divest itself of fossil fuel investments have staged a sit-in on the stone floor and wooden benches inside the Cathedral of Learning’s cavernous lobby, watching and sometimes sleeping through the ebb and flow of humanity within the 42story classroom tower.
As their occupation stretched through the weekend, and into a fourth day Monday, they chatted up visitors on global warming and built a “community library” with shared books. They also received push back from a Pitt administrator, who told them no sleeping bags could be on the floor during the overnight, they said.
Members of the Fossil Free Pitt Coalition chronicled it all on social media, from images of donated food to video of about 25 of them in a circle outside the Cathedral on Sunday evening singing “We Shall Overcome” and “Solidarity Forever.”
Among those paying a visit was State Rep. Sara Innamorato, D-Lawrenceville, who interviewed protesters for a live Twitter stream and told viewers that the Cathedral Commons Room is a public space.
“You can show up, too,” she said. “More importantly, if you are affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh at all, make sure you contact them and let them know you support divestment.”
The protesters are calling attention to a board of trustees meeting Friday at which they want its members to vote to divest from gas, coal, oil and related-industry stocks in Pitt’s $4.3 billion endowment.
University officials said that’s not going to happen, but
administrators including Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said the board will weigh a socially responsible investment strategy and is expected to vote on a resolution supporting Pitt’s desire to eventually go carbon neutral.
Kevin Zwick, a Pitt spokesman, said the protest has not been disruptive. He said Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner twice visited with students Friday and explained expectations for use of the space.
“Dean Bonner was very clear that sleeping bags and mattresses are not permitted in this space,” Mr. Zwick said. “The next time he returned to the commons, seven hours later, he reiterated these expectations.”
In the 70-plus hours since the occupation began, students have filtered in and out to attend classes and get a better place to sleep. They built a spreadsheet to plan meals and offered advice to those who want to donate. (Hint: It doesn’t have to be fancy, even hummus is a great meal, they wrote, but no plastic water bottles and if possible avoid plastic tableware, given the protest nature.)
On Saturday, the occupiers from Fossil Free Pitt Coalition spoke and posed for pictures with tour groups, from college students from other campuses in Pennsylvania and the East Coast to grade schoolers.
Putting oneself out there for any cause in the digital age is a two-edged sword. In short, it can be brutal, and not everyone on Twitter, Instagram and other platforms was impressed by the student protest.
“I’m sure mommy and daddy are thrilled to see their money put to such good use,” tweeted one person.
But there was sympathy, too. Garret Wassermann, a mathematician, physicist, computer scientist running for the state House as a member of Green Party of Allegheny
County, tweeted his support Sunday.
Another commenter said peaceful demonstration is an American tradition dating to the Revolution and that student sit-ins and bus boycotts helped end discrimination in public accommodations.
“Yet so many have a kneejerk reaction to ANY student protest. It is fascinating to me. Are they jealous of the students because they are students?”
During the weekend, events led by Pitt Pathfinders involving prospective students, parents and others highlighted an awkward detente between a university trying to promote itself without trampling on protest freedom, and protesters intent on making a point without disruption.
The protesters said the tour guides had varied explanations for signs such as “We’re Still Here. Ask Us Why” and students who seemingly had taken up residence on the Cathedral floor. Their protest was described alternately as a push for clean energy or for divestment “and Pitt is working on that.”
“This is the great thing about Pitt, our students can do things like this,” the protesters quoted one guide as saying.
The students in sweatshirts and jackets, some looking perhaps a bit disheveled since they began Friday at noon, begged to differ.
“We are not protesting for clean energy,” they wrote on