The UNC Asheville Divestment coalition is holding a town hall meeting on the school’s investments and endowments.
Information from organizers:
WHAT: A town hall meeting on the topic of divesting UNC Asheville’s endowment from fossil fuels
WHEN: February 12, 2015 at 8 p.m.
WHERE: UNC Asheville, Karpen 038
WHO: Four panelists are currently scheduled to speak and respond to comments and questions: John Pierce (Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations, UNC Asheville), Jon King (President and CEO, UNC Management Company), Fran Teplitz (Social Investing and Policy Director and Interim Executive Director, Green America, Washington DC), one UNC Asheville student (TBD) representing the divestment campaign.
WHY: With the denial of anthropogenic climate change no longer accepted, students have begun to put pressure on their universities to pull their funds out of investments in fossil fuel companies as part of the Fossil Free campaign. While these companies can offer their investors large returns, they continue to be large contributors to global warming. UNC Asheville students are joining others across the UNC system in calling on their institutions to divest their endowments from unsustainable and unethical investments and reinvest in environmentally clean energy sectors. Our university is a part of a larger 16 school university system pooling its nearly $4 billion in endowment assets under the management of UNC Management Company (UNCMC). In September of 2014, the Board of Trustees of UNC Chapel Hill passed a resolution directing UNCMC to look into clean energy investments as a management strategy. This event will be the first occasion to hear from UNCMC about the progress that they have made (or not made) in responding to this directive.
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