Editor,
During the Board of Regents meeting on April 10, 350NM co-leader Tom Solomon and State Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino urged the regents to divest UNM’s fossil fuel holdings, which make up approximately 5 to 10 percent of its $415 million endowment. Fifty “Fossil-Free UNM” supporters — including UNM students, faculty, and staff — attended the meeting to rally support for fossil fuel divestment. To the surprise of many in attendance, the regents were receptive to the proposal.
If they agree to take the next step, along with President Frank, and commit to divestment, UNM will join 200 forward-thinking institutions that have collectively divested $50 billion from oil, coal and gas companies. In the week leading up to the UNM regents meeting, Syracuse University became the institution with the largest endowment — $1.2 billion — to divest entirely from fossil fuels. Peruse the recent archive of the student newspaper at Syracuse, “The Daily Orange,” and you will appreciate how its thorough and unbiased coverage of the school’s divestment campaign allowed student climate activists to articulate their goals clearly to the campus community. This enabled the campaign to win widespread support from the student body and faculty, who, in turn, applied enough pressure to the administration to persuade them to divest.
Unfortunately, the Daily Lobo has failed to meaningfully cover UNM’s fossil-free campaign — including last week’s meeting — as it has progressed into a realistic dialogue with administrators. The fact that UNM’s fossil-free petition has more signatures of support than any other fossil-fuel divestment campaign in the world makes clear our campus community’s commitment to divestment. However, without strong ongoing coverage of this campaign by our campus newspaper, this commitment may go unnoticed, making it more difficult to compel the administration to divest.
Sincerely,
Tomas Radcliffe
UNM faculty
