Student Assembly Environmental Committee

Attendance:

Here: Thea, Emma, Michael

Excused: Simeon, Devra, JP

Not: Maddy, Aileen, Stefan

Agenda

Business of the Day: - KyotoNow! Resolution

Minutes

KyotoNOW!

• Rebecca Macies, 14
  • Withdraw money from fossil fuel industry
  • Put 30% of divested funds into sustainable funds
    • This is a pretty loose definition, anything having to do with the green economy
  • Cornell is committed to carbon neutrality
    • But we are not actually if our endowment is invested in fossil fuels
  • STAR ranking
    • We are 1 down from platinum but have room for improvement with investment
  • Filed a FOIA request through state of NY to see where endowment is, but it is private information
    • It seems like we have a lot of money in fossil fuels though
• Alyssa T. 2013
  • Cornell has divested in past
    • Divested from South African apartheid
    • Divested from oil in Darfur
• Anna-Lisa 2014
  • Want to leave flexibility- do not think it is appropriate to dictate Cornell’s investments
    • Negative screen — get rid of bad
    • Positive screen — maximize good investments
  • Cornell was able to do this in the past, even with complicated portfolios
  • So far 1135 people signed petition, and organizational endorsements from clubs on campus
  • Last be it therefore resolved clause:
    • Founded on timelines other schools have used
    • They understand that this is an aggressive timeline, this would be a symbolic victory
  • This was addressed 4 years ago but right before the 2008 financial crisis
• Rebecca
  • STARS report proves that historically Cornell already has sustainable funds invested
  • There is support and action here
• Julia Fiore 2013
  • Harvard and Yale are also making divestment campaigns
• Alyssa
  • There is a sore 16 that colleges should stop divesting in
• Anna-Lisa
  • They have petitioned and asked to see the endowment but this will not happen any time soon
  • They have done their groundwork and homework
• Rebecca
  • They feel they can have impact here without being overbearing
  • Responsibility would be put on board of trustees investment committee
• Anna-Lisa
  • Alumni and community members are supporting this campaign and reached out
    • Threatening the university with stopping donations until this is looked at
  • Strategy can be left up to people who know how to do this

Debate

• It is very reasonable� more than we thought than we thought when we originally read the resolution
• Being harsh on purpose
• What we do needs to correspond to what we already pledged
• This is a relevant cause
• This is a great idea but the resolution doesn’t fit it
• 30% of the divested funds needs to be clarified in the resolution
• Do we want to set this precedent?
• There is a network of colleges working on this to develop this idea
• Should have more be it therefore resolved clauses
• It doesn’t portray what they want
• We want to rewrite it with them but we believe in what they are seeing
• Conclusion: we will ask them to edit their resolution and come back in a week