LIFE & CULTURE

6A | FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015 | WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM

Deaf ears for

divestment

University slow to
pull endowments
from Filthy 15

he university
has indirect
holdings in 15
major coal mining
and coal utility
companies valued
at $5.1 million.

By SARAH SOENKE
Staff writer

It has been nearly two

years since students voted 6-1 for
the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign to divest its funds
from the coal industry. And little
has been done with the Universitys investment portfolio to meet
their demands.
The goal of divestment is to discredit and stigmatize the fossil fuel industry so that all of us can affect change, not just those with the
financial means, said Erika Weir,
president of UIUC Beyond Coal.
We attend this university, and we
should have a say in its finances.
Formed in 2011, UIUC Beyond
Coal is a registered student organization meant to help the university recognize the negative effects of
the coal industry and encourage the
withdrawal, or divestment, of all
university endowment funds from
the dirtiest coal utility and mining
companies, otherwise known as the
Filthy 15, in the United States.
The University currently holds
$500 million it its endowment, plus
another $1.3 billion through the
University of Illinois Foundation
(UIF). While neither holds any direct holdings in the Filthy 15, they
have a $5.1 million indirect expo-

Beyond Coal Campaign

continues to push
toward coal divestment
Abbott Power Plant is planned to
stop burning coal and be carbon
neutral starting in 2017.

UIUC Beyond Coal hosts a rally

outside the Swanlund
Administration Building against
the inaction on May 7.

In Feburary, the Ad-Hoc Licensing

Advisory Committee advises Chancellor
Wise on the next steps to divest.

sure to these companies through

externally managed funds, according to Lesley Wexler, chair of the
Ad-Hoc Licensing Advisory Committee to the University.
While only being 0.28 percent
of the total endowment, the potential divestment could have an important effect in reprimanding the
irresponsibilities of coal corporations when it is coming from such
a prominent institution, students
with UIUC Beyond Coal believe.
However, the University is making progress toward clean energy
is other forms. The Abbott Power Plant, a coal-fired power plant
owned and operated by the University, is planned to stop burning
coal by 2017. In spring 2015, the
University also started building a
solar farm to supply 2 percent of
the Universitys energy.
But a group of students at the
Urbana-Champaign campus are
demanding more direct action
through the Universitys endowment funds.
In 2013, the RSO was able to collect over 4,000 student signatures
to put a sole referendum about coal
divestment on the student ballot.
Then, 1,730 of the 2,020 students
who voted said they wanted the
PLEASE SEE COAL PAGE 11

Coal is the
largest source of

UIUC Beyond Coal hosts a

Break up with Coal
event on Feb. 13.

global warming pollution

in the U.S., causing...

Students vote 6:1

for the university
to divest from coal
in the November
2013 referendum.

21,000 deaths
24,000 hospitalizations

UIUC Beyond Coal collects over

4,000 signatures to put a
divestment referendum on the
ballot in fall 2013.

280,000 severe asthma

attacks annually

By 2013, 300 more colleges, churches,

institutions, and municipalities join
the movement to divest.

Ozone,
acid rain, and
greenhouse
gasses

UIUC Beyond Coal forms in Fall 2011,

joining two other colleges in the U.S.

Heart disease,
respiratory
diseases, and
cancer

SOURCE: UIUC BEYOND COAL

Water
contaminated
with mercury,
arsenic, and
other waste

SOURCE: ENERGY ACTION COALITION

Students rally against inaction

By SARAH SOENKE
Staff writer

STAFF PHOTO BY SARAH SOENKE

Chris Rost, senior in LAS, gives a concluding speech at UIUC Beyond Coals divestment rally on Friday at 12:30 p.m. The event hosted three key speakers, musical performances and
demonstrations in front of the Swanlund Administration Building and the Main Quad.

Echoing chants for coal divestment bounced off the Swanlund Administration Building
and into the Main Quad on May
7, as students with UIUC Beyond Coal rallied against the
slow response from the University to divest.
The registered student organization was met with around
30 participants to help call attention to the Universitys investment portfolios continuing
financial support of the Filthy
15, or the dirtiest coal utility
and mining companies in the
United States.

A banner stating UC students vote 6:1 to divest from

dirty coal waved from the
top level of the parking garage
across from the Swanlund Administration Building as attendees participated in speeches, poster waving, chants and
musical performances.
Tyler Rotche, former UIUC
Beyond Coal president and
University alumnus, was first
to address the crowd Thursday
at noon.
What we have here, given
that the students have voted
86 percent in favor of divestment, is a rouge university that

is completely unresponsive to
the voices of the student body,
he said. This is a movement
not for radicals, but for people
of conscious.
Erika Weir, president of UIUC Beyond Coal and junior in
LAS, spoke second in front of
the crowd and took a more personal stance on the issue.
I am personally ashamed to
attend a university that states its
mission is to enhance the lives
of citizens in Illinois, across the
nation and around the world
through our leadership in learning, discovery, engagement and
economic development and yet
PLEASE SEE RALLY PAGE 11