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University of Mary Washington's Board Votes Nay on Divesting

Divest UMW/facebook

Students at the University of Mary Washington spent three weeks sitting-in at the administration building – demanding the school consider selling its investments in coal. 

As a major producer of greenhouse gas, they argued that fuel was putting the Earth at risk, but the school’s  board didn’t see the point, and its president says two students will be prosecuted.

More than 100 students rallied outside as the University of Mary Washington’s board met and voted not to set up a committee that would look at selling investments in coal.  A quarter of all students and a third of the faculty had signed a petition in support of the idea, but President Richard Hurley said the board would invest in whatever offered the highest rate of return.

“Our endowment is a resource and can’t be used to make political statements.”

Students protest at UMW

Hurley  said students had a role to play in governing their university, but he made no apology for having them arrested after a 21-day sit in. Some had begun lying in front of the elevators – forcing administrators to climb the stairs to their offices.  Newly admitted students were expected to visit over the weekend, the hallway where protestors sat had become dirty and cluttered with their stuff.  The situation, he said, was unsafe, so the university called police.

“We may have arrested them, but they chose to be arrested.  I don’t want to arrest students, but on the other hand we did say you have an hour and a half to leave the building and they were being disobedient.”

Actually, only two students were arrested.  One, Adam Wander, says he was walking away from the protest when police grabbed him, and the other – Noah Goodwin of Arlington – said, frankly, he sacrificed himself for a woman.

“I saw a member of the Fredericksburg community who had supported us, who had worked closely with Food Not Bombs to bring us food.  She was an artist, she is an immigrant, she’s the mother of three, and I saw her willingly offer herself to be the first person to be arrested, and  I kind of started running on auto-pilot and thought, ‘It’s not right if she’s the only one to go down for this, and the right thing, the honorable thing is to stand with her – and I did stand with her for about 20 minutes, while they shackled me and stuck me in a van – with Adam.”

All three of those arrested face a charge of trespassing and will appear in court at the end of this month, but Goodwin warned administrators he would be back.

"You might think you’ve won, because you scared us with the cops, but you haven’t.  We are going to stay here.  We are going to win, and you will be on the wrong side of history.”

Visitor Ed Houck

The group cheered as former State Senator Edd Houck left the meeting.  He and board member Carlos del Toro backed the students’ idea – saying it was reasonable to at least consider divesting.  Huock urged the students not to give up.

“Do I wish we had maybe won – sure, but the bigger issue is about climate change.  You all helped change the dialogue, so I want to do this to you.  Thank you for doing that!” 

The board’s president, Holly Cuellar, led the opposition.  A former scheduler for Governor Bob McDonnell, she left the meeting without talking to reporters.

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief
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