Kaitlyn Salazar, Science & Environment Writer
• November 16, 2023
As freezing fog makes its yearly return to Walla Walla, many of us find ourselves cranking up the thermostat to stave off the frigid temperatures outside. Unfortunately, heating a house can heat the...
On Nov. 8, 2018, the Board of Trustees voted to begin divesting from fossil fuels.
On Nov. 7, 2019, just one day before the divestment decision’s first anniversary, sophomore Karsten Beling sent...
On Thursday evening, members of Divest Whitman placed signs outside Memorial Hall. The signs form a timeline of the different divestment movements throughout Whitman's history. The most recent sign read, "In 2015, students, faculty, and staff sat in Memorial Hall to support a 1% cap on fossil fuel exposure." The signs are captured in the slideshow below.
It is painful to see a major news outlet ignore questions that need to be asked and criticisms that need to see the light of day—it is painful because it happens over and over again in the media.
Though the Whitman College Board of Trustees stated the college will not divest from the fossil fuel industry, students in the Divest Whitman movement are still trying to change their minds.
Students...
After listening to a speech by founder of the 350.org organization Bill McKibben, over 200 members of the Whitman community marched around campus chanting slogans in favor of divesting the college's endowment from fossil fuels. The largest event held so far by Whitman’s divestment movement, the march energized supporters of the movement and built upon momentum the movement has built over the semester.
I have joined a campaign at my college to call for our endowment to be divested from the companies with the largest reserves of fossil fuels. We call for divestment in solidarity with people on the front...
Although the divestment campaign is important, we can’t afford to politely ask that everyone around us change, oil companies included, if we can’t take the first step and change ourselves.
In 2011, President George Bridges launched the "Now is the Time" campaign to encourage patrons to invest in Whitman.
"My idea was simple. It got at the heart of things," Bridges explained earnestly....
Campus Climate Challenge’s (CCC) campaign to encourage Whitman to divest from fossil fuels has gained traction on campus, but has met with new challenges as students and administrators disagree over the best way to use the investment to lower the burning of fossil fuels.
Even if the current campaign to divest from fossil fuels is unsuccessful in its stated goals, it will still have succeeded in making a political statement that resonates with a nation-wide project to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
