GU Fossil Free stormed the Gaston Hall stage today following a speech by World Bank Group President Dr. Jim Yong Kim on climate change.
During the transition from Kim’s speech to a question-and-answer session, three members of GU Fossil Free walked onto the stage and unfurled a large banner. In addition, three other members of the group stood in the question-and-answer session line to ask Kim about his thoughts on the divestment movement.
The large homemade banner read: “‘CORPORATE LEADERS SHOULD NOT WAIT TO ACT UNTIL MARKET SIGNALS ARE RIGHT & NATIONAL INVESTMENT POLICIES ARE IN PLACE.’ – Jim Yong Kim GEORGETOWN, DIVEST NOW GU Fossil Free.”
Vice President for Global Engagement Thomas Banchoff, who moderated the event, paused and looked at the sign with Kim, before inviting Kim to sit down for questions despite the interruption. Several Georgetown University Police Department officers approached GU Fossil Free on stage and escorted them down the steps after around five minutes. The officers took the names and Georgetown IDs of each GU Fossil Free member on stage, which included Patricia Cippolitti (SFS’15), Chloe Lazarus (COL’16) and Elaine Colligan (SFS’15).
Cipollitti said that GU Fossil Free did not intend to criticize Kim, but instead to use his speech as a platform to spread its message.
“We wanted to use this opportunity to let the audience know, at Georgetown and worldwide, that Georgetown has a campaign to divest from fossil fuels and Georgetown as an institution has a role to play in solving the very problem that Jim Kim was talking about,” Cipollitti said.
Cipollitti said she was pleased with the demonstration and GU Fossil Free’s discussion with Kim about divestment during the question-and-answer session.
“I think it went well,” Cipollitti said. “I’m happy that we were able to get our message across and I’m happy that three GU Fossil Free members were asking a question related to divestment as we were physically representing our campaign.”
GU Fossil Free members have worked with university administrators over the past months after they developed a proposal requesting that the university divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies. The Committee on Investments and Social Responsibility voted against GU Fossil Free’s proposal in late January, and proposed an alternative solution, which includes targeted divestment and continued assessment of the university’s investments. The group also met with five members of the university’s board of directors in mid-February, and the board will discuss GU Fossil Free and CISR’s proposals at its meeting in May.
Requests for comment have been issued to Banchoff, a representative from the university board of directors and GUPD Chief Jay Gruber. A full story will appear in Friday’s print edition of The Hoya.