‘Climate Justice Teach-In’ celebrates Earth Day while setting standards for CC sustainability

As a community greatly invested in the outdoors, Colorado College and many of its students have committed themselves to sustainable practices.

In an effort to both commemorate the 45th anniversary of Earth Day and accelerate CC’s progress towards reducing the college’s environmental impact, the Student Divestment Committee and EnAct hosted a teach-in on the green outside of Tutt Library on Wednesday April 22.

Student Divestment Committee members Ben Criswell and Alex Suber opened the event by explaining that the teach-in served to address three issues: a carbon-neutral renovated Tutt Library, the administration’s commitment to achieving a carbon neutral campus by the year 2020, and institutional divestment from fossil fuels.

“These three steps could help us establish sustainability as an institutional value,” said Criswell. “An area in which our school is currently more talk than action.”

During Block 6, the Student Divestment Committee met with the Board of Trustees to present their case for divestment and reveal the formation of the Colorado College Responsible Endowment Fund. The Fund raises money from alumni donations, which will become available to the Board of Trustees only if they decide to engage in divestment.

The teach-in sought to generate more interest from the community in their efforts to prove to the administration, Board of Trustees, and campus planning committees that the majority of the student body wants divestment. Any decision made by these parties should reflect this sentiment.

In order to garner this interest, the Divestment Committee and EnAct taped three sheets of paper on the windows of Tutt on which CC students could paint their ideas regarding the three goals on the sheets. The Committee and EnAct plan to show these to the administration, Board of Trustees, and campus planning committees to demonstrate student interest in these goals and to suggest solutions.

“We aimed to send a message that indifference towards our role in climate change is no longer acceptable,” said Criswell. “Right now CC is in a unique position to set a precedent for campus sustainability for decades to come.”

As students munched on grilled cheeses and burgers made to order from Seeds Café during the two-hour-long teach-in, a collection of speakers spoke about a wide array of issues related to climate justice. These speakers included students, faculty, and community members, and topics ranged from sustainable investment practices to our innate spiritual connection to the environment.

“We wanted to invite a diverse group of speakers—students, faculty, financial advisers—to address climate change in an intersectional and educational way,” said Criswell.

The first speaker, sophomore Zach Pawa, encouraged the audience to think about how CC should fight for environmental justice instead of “numbers on a piece of paper” in regards to divesting from fossil-fuel based companies.

The second, Professor of Economics Mark Smith, who had previously served on the college’s Strategic Planning Committee, explained that CC students needed to hold the college accountable for the principles it has set. He went on to say that the committees involved in upholding those principles needed to see interest and hear ideas from students about two of those principles, sustainability and carbon neutrality.

Other topics included how addressing climate change differs across country borderlines and social class, how CC’s handling of climate change will influence Colorado Springs, and how students can better involve themselves in such issues.

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