Protest nothing new for group that delayed game,
It may have been the most highprofile, but the climatechange protest that stopped the YaleHarvard football game for 40 minutes Saturday isn’t the first time activists have disrupted Yale’s campus in recent years.
As possibly 1,000 or more fans cheering for both sides took to the field holding signs and peacefully protesting, pamphlets were circulated citing the universities' investments in the fossil fuel industry as motivation.
“Our universities profit from climate injustice and ignore student voices. Today, we take action,” the pamphlet, which listed both the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition and Divest Harvard, read.
“Harvard and Yale students stand united in demanding that our universities disclose how much of their $71 billion in endowments is invested in the fossil fuel industry and Puerto Rican debt,” the pamphlet went on to read, calling for the universities to divest from fossil fuel and reinvest in “socially responsible initiatives.”
Fossil Free Yale, formed in 2012 and part of a coalition of student groups, claimed credit for Saturday’s protest as well, and is no stranger to activism related to fossil fuel divestment.
Beginning in 2015 and multiple times just in the last year, activists affiliated with the group and aligned under on mission to push Yale investors to stop profiting from fossil fuel have been arrested during campus protests. The group has indicated it won’t stop protesting until its demands are met.
Here are three times in the last 12 months Fossil Free Yale has staged protests on Yale’s campus, making headlines and leading to arrests while calling for change in how the university invests.
48 arrested in 2018 sitin
In December of last year, more than 100 people including Yale students marched from outside the Sterling Memorial Library to the school’s Investment office on Whitney Avenue Friday to protest how the school invests its money.
The protesters, chanting, “No hate, no fear, divestment starts here,” hailed from a coalition of student groups and labor organizations, asking that university officials order fund managers to cancel Puerto Rican debt holdings and discloset fossil fuel corporation investments.
Additionally, more than 50 students staged a sitin at the office; ultimately 48 of those students were arrested.
Fossil Free Yale says protesters won’t stop after 17 arrested in March
Seventeen Yale University students were arrested and issued citations in March after at least 30 people returned to the investments office for another sitin.
The group continued to pressure the school to “direct its fund managers to cancel their holdings in Puerto Rico’s debt and divest the endowment from fossil fuel companies,” according to a release.
“They have emphasized that they will continue returning to the Investments Office until the University takes action on their demands,” the release said.
Protesters demand answers of Yale investment officer during NPR event
In April, in the middle of a program advertised as “A student’s guide to making wise financial choices and other tips from NPR’s ‘LifeKit’ Podcast.” more than 40 protesters demanded Yale divest in fossil fuels.
At the same time, 20 more students held a sitin in the lobby of the same building. Those students were issued citations when they refused to leave.
As Yale’s chief investment officer David Swensen, interviewed with National Public Radio’s Chris Arnold, a student stood up and told Swensen the sitin was occurring and that he has been asked repeatedly to answer calls for change in Yale’s investments. “When will you respond?” she asked Swensen, who remained silent.
Much of the audience then marched out, chanting, “Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go,” the New Haven Register reported at the time. Protesters at Saturday’s Yale and Harvard football game were heard chanting the same.