The recent article “Spirit of student-led protest lives on†highlights an important battle in UNC’s history, the end result of which ensured that students could continue fighting for causes important to them. As a current UNC student, I can attest to the fact that the spirit of protest alluded to in the article does, in fact, live on, and is particularly alive right now.
The Sierra Student Coalition on campus has made sure that the hard work put into overturning the Speaker Ban Law was not in vain. SSC and its Beyond Coal campaign are dedicated to making UNC a leader in environmental responsibility. Just as students in the past took a stand for civil rights, students now are taking a stand against a dependency on coal that harms our environment, our health and our economy. After succeeding in winning a commitment from the administration to stop burning coal on campus a little over a year ago, SSC Beyond Coal is now engaged in a new campaign to sever UNC’s financial ties with the dangerous coal industry through the strategy of endowment divestment. The group recently held two rallies that called upon university leaders to support its green investment goals and directly involved students in symbolically moving prop endowment money from a polluting coal plant to clean wind turbines. This is the kind of activism that is crucial to fostering change that will propel the university in the right direction. As a respected institution of higher learning, it is only fitting that UNC step into a leadership role within the environmental revolution – a revolution which is quickly becoming the defining movement of our generation.
The recent Occupy Wall Street movements have laid bare the corporate greed that contributes to the success of the coal industry and that further intensifies the fight for a clean energy future. Chancellor Thorp, UNC President Tom Ross and UNC Board of Trustees Chair Wade Hargrove have called upon us to “learn from the example of [our] predecessors by being proactive and working together to initiate change.†This teamwork and proactivity are happening right now within the Sierra Student Coalition’s Beyond Coal campaign. We, like student body president Mary Cooper, believe in the power of students to initiate change and we are thankful for the opportunity to have our voices heard.
Katie Orndahl
UNC Beyond Coal Media Coordinator
1 thought on “LETTER: UNC should sever ties with coal”
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What a great idea! Shut down the steam plant, get rid of coal. We don’t need the heating or sterilizers in the Hospital after all.