The annual Harvard-Yale football game was delayed Saturday when hundreds of students and alumni from both universities stormed the field, demanding the Ivy League schools divest from fossil fuels.
Protesters hit the field just before halftime ended, calling for the colleges to cut ties with private prisons and cancel holdings in Puerto Rican debt.
While a majority of demonstrators left the Yale Bowl after about half an hour, a handful of folks were arrested when they refused to evacuate, as reported by the Yale Daily News.
“Students are tired of Harvard and Yale profiting off of climate destruction and neocolonial investments in Puerto Rico’s debt,” the Divest Harvard campaign, which helped plan the protest, said in a press release, published by the college newspaper. “It’s time for more than lip service and greenwashing for academic leaders.
“Harvard and Yale must address the climate emergency at the scale and with the urgency it demands,” the statement continued. “This action is only the beginning.”
Students, faculty, and alumni have repeatedly called on both Universities to divest their endowment from the fossil fuel industry. Administrators, however, refuse, stating that the schools do not use donated money or financial assets for political purposes.
By the end of fiscal year 2018, Harvard’s endowment reached a whopping $39.2 billion; Yale followed closely with $29.4 billion.
(For reference: Other Ivy League schools in the top 10 include Princeton [$25.4 billion], University of Pennsylvania [$13.8 billion], and Columbia [$10.9 billion].)
Following Saturday’s disruption, The Ivy League tweeted a statement supporting “the right to freedom of speech and demonstration.” Just not during a 100-year-old custom.
“It is regrettable that the orchestrated protest came during a time when fellow students were participating in a collegiate career-defining contest and an annual tradition when thousands gather from around the world to enjoy and celebrate the storied traditions of both football programs and universities,” the association said.
“We stand with the Ivy League in its statement,” Karen Peart, media relations director for Yale University, told the Daily News.
A reported 42 individuals were issued misdemeanor summons for disorderly conduct, given tickets and court dates for within the next “one or two weeks,” according to Peart.
“We are grateful to the staff members and police officers who ensured the peaceful departure of students from the field,” she wrote in an email to The Harvard Crimson. “The exercise of free expression on campus is subject to general conditions, and we do not allow disruption of University events.”
Event co-organizer Fossil Free Yale is collecting money via GoFundMe to help cover legal fees of arrested protestors in Cambridge and New Haven. As of press time, they have raised more than $10,000 of their $20,000 goal.
The demonstration received endorsements from presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Sec. Julián Castro, as well as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Bill McKibben, among other climate activists.
“While we agree on the urgency of this global challenge, we respectfully disagree with divestment activists on the means by which a university should confront it,” Harvard spokesperson Rachael Dane told the Crimson.
“Universities like Harvard have a crucial role to play in tackling climate change,” she continued. “And Harvard is fully committed to leadership in this area through research, education, community engagement, dramatically reducing its own carbon footprint, and using our campus as a test bed for piloting and proving solutions.”
The Game, an annual tradition since November 1875 (when Harvard beat Yale 4-nil), eventually resumed. Yale won 50-43.
More on Geek.com:
- Dozens Strip Outside Facebook’s NY Offices to Protest Censorship
- Report: Climate Change Is Making Us Sick
- 11,000 World Scientists Declare Climate Emergency
from Geek.com https://ift.tt/37yscC4
via IFTTT
0 comments:
Post a Comment