by Kitty Bolte

If you’re part of CSSC, you probably already save energy at your house: you turn off the lights when you leave the room, you don’t use unnecessary electricity guzzlers like hair dryers, and maybe you’ve even switched to energy efficient appliances or compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Maybe you’ve also taken action to save energy at your school: across the state, students have spearheaded successful efforts to instate dormitory-wide energy savings competitions, instituted green energy revolving funds, convinced their dining halls to turn off the lights during the daytime, and encouraged their administrations to undertake all sorts of other energy-saving measures.

Now, CSSC is looking a step beyond. While it’s undeniably important to save energy at home and on campus, as environmental activists we need to continue pushing the envelope of what our campuses can achieve. We need to phase out fossil fuel-based energy production and phase in renewable energy.

How can we achieve such a tall order? We leverage the enormous power we have as students in a public university system, of course.

Here’s how it works: UC, CSU and community college campuses have endowments, pools of money which they invest to generate revenue. Money from major gifts and fundraising is invested with the goal of bringing back more funds to their schools, supporting new development, scholarships, and much more. While some California schools, as well as the UC Regents, have taken steps toward investing responsibly, millions of dollars still go into just the sort of companies we don’t want to support: companies that manage coal mines and coal-fired power plants and pollute our planet. Through CSSC’s End Coal campaign, students are pushing their administrations to get our money out of fossil fuels and into investments in renewable energy.

Spotlight on the UCLA End Coal Campaign:

At UCLA, students have set up an Action Research Team (ART) through the Education for Sustainable Living Program (ESLP) to tackle these issues. They’re putting together a public speaker panel to educate students about the potential for responsible investment to address these issues, and they’re also working with the UCLA Foundation (UCLA’s endowment fund) to set up an advisory board on sustainable investment. This advisory board is based on successful models from schools such as Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. Members of the board, including students just like you, would be able to give input to foundation members about where our money should go. This type of committee sets values for the endowment and will challenge and guide the foundation to get strong returns on their investments while truly putting their money where their mouth is.

UCLA students have already met with a foundation member who is excited about the prospect of creating exactly this type of entity. They’re planning to continue their ART into next quarter, and are hoping to lay the foundations for an advisory board to start up next fall. Stay tuned for more updates as we progress with the campaign!

Want to get involved? Contact
Andrew Chang, Campaign Director: [email protected]
Maanya Condamoor, UC Coordinator: [email protected]
Kitty Bolte, Outreach Coordinator: [email protected]