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Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
Unity College in Maine, which frames itself as “America’s Environmental College,” has opened up debate about whether small institutions really need to have flagship campuses to survive. In a recently updated FAQ, college leaders wrote that for the time being, the school planned to “continue to offer face-to-face, experiential, environmentally-focused programs” on its 240-acre campus once the campus reopens. At the same time, they noted, “If it is no longer financially viable, the college leadership has the ability to explore selling the main campus or any other college assets … in order to ensure resources are allocated to best serve our students, their needs and the long-term sustainability of the college.”
Students push for university climate change divestments
When environmentalist Bill McKibben hit the road in 2012 to preach the gospel of sustainable investing, few would have guessed that his biofuel-powered bus tour of United States universities would spark a worldwide divestment movement. But eight years later, the work of McKibben and others has led more than 1,250 institutional investors with US$14.5 trillion in assets to commit to cut fossil fuels from their portfolios, and inspired a new generation of activists to take the fight to companies profiting from climate change, writes Billy Nauman for the
Financial Times.
Their message caught on quickly with students. If the world was going to keep global warming in check, energy companies would need to leave the vast majority of their fossil fuel assets in the ground. Therefore, university endowments that held fossil fuel stocks, as McKibben argued in