During Tufts Parents and Family Weekend, Tufts Climate Action members spoke to parents about the Tufts administration’s reluctance to divest funds in their endowment from fossil fuel industry holdings.
“We’ve spent this weekend aiming to inform and unite parents around divestment because they are important allies in our efforts,” sophomore Moli Ma, a leader of TCA, said. “I would say that our actions this weekend have been successful; I had some very engaging discussions with parents around campus, and we collected signatures and spread the word, just as we planned to.”
In November 2019, the Tufts Board of Trustees established a Responsible Investment Advisory Group that allowed any member of the Tufts community to call for a review of the university’s investment decisions.
Following a recommendation from the RIAG, the Board of Trustees announced in spring 2021 that it would ban future investment in fossil fuel holdings.
“We were finally getting some sort of reception, and it is a step in the right direction, but of course, that doesn’t actually mean they actually divested any of their current holdings in fossil fuels as an institution,” junior Helen Cedzidlo, a leader of TCA said. “It’s important to recognize the significance of our wins, because that is definitely a win, while also keeping in mind that we can’t stop pushing for complete and better climate justice at this school.”
TCA has advocated for Tufts to divest in fossil fuels since at least 2015. Other universities, such as Harvard and the University of Michigan, have already taken steps to divest their endowments from the fossil fuel industry according to their student newspapers, The Crimson and The Michigan Daily, respectively.
“[These campaigns] often take many years, which is unfortunate because climate change and the climate crisis is such an urgent issue,” senior Julia Silberman, a leader of TCA said. “Especially in a university setting or in government, there [are] always very slow trains of bureaucracy.”
Parents and Family Weekend presented an opportunity for TCA to spread awareness of their cause to Tufts parents.
"[TCA’s] goal was to spread the message of divestment to parents, a lot of whom may not be aware of Tufts’ role in the fossil fuels industry,” Ma said.
Parents hold significant leverage in the decisions Tufts makes because they can decide where they donate their money, Ma explained.
“One of our more specific taglines this weekend has been ‘no donations until divestment,’ which we use as a means of leveraging support and pressure on the administration to fully divest,” Ma said. “The tactics — painting the cannon, chalking, tabling and speaking to parents one-on-one — all go towards this larger goal.”
Silberman said she believes the administration has more work to do on climate action justice.
“[Administrators] haven’t really been following through so much on their commitments,” Silberman said. “Getting them … to do more has been a little bit difficult, because they feel like they’ve done all they have to do.”
Jennifer Reilly, the communications specialist at the Tufts Office of Sustainability, said the OOS has seen an “exponential ramping up in community concern around climate change.” In light of those concerns, Reilly said the university is reevaluating its definition of sustainability.
“[The Tufts Sustainability Council] drafted a new definition of sustainability for the university,” Reilly said. “They’re starting to create action strategies. … We’re going to be entering a community engagement process where we’re going to be presenting this first draft to the Tufts community.”
Cedzidlo said that even though progress is slow, she is persistent in pushing for the university to reform its climate policies.
“Of course, there are times when it’s frustrating, because … it doesn’t always feel like the activism is paying off, but then when it does, that’s really rewarding because it’s a lot of work,” Cedzidlo said. “It’s really hard to push for change at a systemic level, but I think it’s really important and something that we have to be doing.”
Silberman hopes that Tufts will fully divest from fossil fuels holdings.
“It’s my dream to have that happen before I graduate,” Silberman said. “I will continue persistently fighting for this during my remaining tenure here at Tufts. … Tufts just needs to be more involved in climate justice overall, and I hope that beyond divestment, TCA can help incorporate this into Tufts’ mission and impact.”
