In policy, much back-patting with no impact
On August 31, President Obama began a historic trip to the Alaskan Arctic in order to highlight the effects of climate change on the region. Obama’s call to curb the CO2 emissions that are already...
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Mountain Justice Protests Board, Citing Republication of Board Data by IPAA
photo courtesy of Sophia Zaia ’18 — Members of Mountain Justice present “#1 oil and gas industry ally” award to Board of Managers on Saturday As the Board of Managers held their first meeting of the...
View ArticleGiving a gold star for all the wrong reasons
Last May, the Board of Managers put Swarthmore on the wrong side of history. They continued to invest in and legitimize the fossil fuel industry — an industry that actively profits from racial and...
View ArticleBoard’s continued failure to divest is unacceptable
In light of the chance concurrence of Discover Swarthmore and the Board of Managers meeting, we at the Phoenix feel that the college should consider the potentially negative ways in which the Board of...
View ArticleRefusal to divest may not have been entirely financial
During the most recent meeting of the Board of Managers’ Committee on Social Responsibility on Friday, September 18, the Board revisited its May decision to not divest from fossil fuels in order to...
View ArticleMountain Justice demands recusal of three board members
Wednesday at 12:20 p.m. Mountain Justice gathered in Parrish Parlors to demand that several Board members who have ties to the fossil fuel industry recuse themselves from future Board discussions of...
View ArticleBoard members obligated to recuse themselves
Today, Swarthmore Mountain Justice called on Board members Rhonda Cohen ’76, Samuel Hayes III ’57, and Harold Kalkstein ’78, to recuse themselves from future conversations on fossil fuel divestment....
View ArticleSwarthmore can align its values with honorary degree recipients
This Thursday, three Swarthmore Honorary Degree recipients, labor organizer and anti-war activist John Braxton, linguist, philosopher and political activist Noam Chomsky, and Berkeley sociology...
View ArticleDistractors from debate
Distractors from debate As a student run publication, we at The Phoenix ascribe a high value to discourse and open conversation on the issues that affect our collective Swarthmore experience. This...
View ArticleA response to “Board conflict leaves no choice but to escalate”
To the editors, We write in response to the Feb. 25 guest opinion, “Board Conflicts of Interest Leaves No Choice but to Escalate.” Many of the assertions in the piece are unfounded and present a...
View ArticleCohen, Hayes and Kalkstein must recuse themselves
In response to President Valerie Smith and Chair of the Board Tom Spock Last week, President Valerie Smith and Chair of the Board of Managers Tom Spock responded to Mountain Justice’s call for members...
View ArticleWhy the carbon charge is welcome but no alternative to divestment
This past weekend, the Board of Managers at Swarthmore College approved an internal charge on greenhouse gas emissions. We should mark what appears to be an initial step toward developing a carbon...
View ArticleMountain Justice escalates action in Philadelphia
Holding signs reading “Carbon emissions – air pollution – 8 million deaths a year” and “Rhonda Cohen – Board of Glenmede Trust – $1 billion in Fossil Fuel Industry,” 18 members of Mountain Justice,...
View ArticleSwarthmore should follow Yale’s lead, divest
On April 12th, Yale’s Chief Investment Officer David Swensen announced the school’s decision to partially divest its endowment from fossil fuels. Swensen cited not ethical reasons, but financial...
View ArticleYale divested, why haven’t we?
In April, Yale University, which has one of the highest performing endowments in the world, announced that it would partially divest its endowment from fossil fuels, citing the financial risks of...
View ArticleDivestment and the need for moral leadership on climate
On Monday, thousands of students and faculty at colleges, high schools, and even two middle schools across the nation walked out of class to reject the deadly climate denialism of the Trump...
View ArticleStudents, faculty attend walk-out and teach-in for climate justice
There is no shortage of public outcry across the country in protest of the newly established Trump administration. As recently as Monday, January 23rd, members of Swarthmore Mountain Justice, in...
View ArticleIn referendum, vote for divestment, vote for justice
From foreign conflict to inadequate healthcare to domestic militarized, racist policing, the government controlled by Donald Trump and the Republican Party has exacerbated existing problems, leaving...
View ArticleWe forced divestment from apartheid, we will do it again
Yesterday, SGO announced the results of the student referendum on fossil fuel divestment. The referendum passed by a landslide: 80.5 percent of voters agreed that Swarthmore College should divest from...
View ArticleWhy the Board should listen to the divestment referendum
In 2013, I was skeptical of divestment. I reasoned through simple, and undoubtedly naïve, cost-benefit analysis that the expected gains in terms of direct reduction of fossil fuel consumption did not...
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