TL; DR: Mount Allison Needs to Divest.
This post has been a long time coming. It is simultaneously a year overdue, and right on time.
Almost 6 years ago now, when I was making the decision to go to University, I was very careful in my selection. I wanted to ensure the institution I chose would be one which was aligned with my values. I knew I wanted to attend a small school, which took pride in the education it was providing to students. Moreover, I wanted a school which took our era of environmental crisis seriously. I knew environmental studies was where my attentions would be placed, but more than simply offering courses to educate me on the human-environment relationship, I knew I wanted my University to fully support a culture of sustainability, right down to facility operations and supported extra-curriculars. Mount Allison seemed to utterly fit the bill. I was thrilled to be attending a school which seemed to care so much for its students.
I need to say, right off the bat, that my professors were nothing shy of spectacular. I know that those people cared for my education, personal well-being, and my generations’ future in a way that I will never truly understand. I want those professors to know how grateful I am to them, and how truly sorry I am for leaving Sackville, and their remarkable support, knowledge, and love. My professors, and the learning they imparted unto me are the reasons I write this with the fury and heartache that I do. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to fully understand the injustices that Mount Allison continues to perpetrate, and the general fuckery of it all.
My four years at Mount Allison were four years of elation, disappointment, anger, confusion, optimism, hope, apathy and ultimately, sadness and fear.
In my early years at Mt.A I was given the fantastic opportunity to take part in an independent study with two crazy intelligent students, and under the direction of possibly the most caring, kind and encouraging male professor I have yet to meet. This independent study we were carrying out was primarily looking at examples of sustainability offices across Eastern Canada and the United States, and examining how those models might fit into the Mt.A context. We found that in every single case investigated, Sustainability Offices at Universities were of vital importance when it came to slashing emissions, bettering environmental practices, and nurturing a culture of sustainability on campus. As a bonus, these positions nearly always paid for themselves as a result of energy savings.
Despite years of pressuring Mt.A admin to develop a Sustainability Office, or solo officer on campus, with offers by the aforementioned professor to write grants to cover initial costs, the idea was rejected time and time again by those in positions of power.
At one point, Mount Allison had this totally great thing that was referred to as a Green Evolving Fund, or Budget. This fund was developed, and successfully lasted for several years, serving to allow those in facilities management to implement more sustainable measures on campus (think, switching indoor lighting to LEDs, or updating ventilation systems) and then take the savings earned from those measures and reinvest them in further greening of campus practices. In just a few years the fund had something like $700,000 in its coffers. For all intents and purposes the fund was a success, the only downside was that there were so many projects to be implemented, and so much funding, but only so little time, and so few resources (read: people). When the University fell on financial hardship (while still maintaining its standing as the second-wealthiest Undergrad university in Canada on a per-capita basis) the fund was frozen, and over the course of a year or so, dispersed into other operating and ancillary budgets. Bye-bye green fund.
Over the course of my time at Mount Allison I was continually disappointed in University Administrators honesty when regarding environmental issues and sustainability. A few victories like the purchase of an industrial composter, or reduction of energy usage during C3 (the Campus Climate Challenge, for those of the non-Mt.A persuasion) were loudly declared whenever possible, and used as proof that Mount Allison cared. And hey, did you see those reusable bags from the bookstore? The ones with a leaf on the “A”? That’s stewardship right there. Never mind that the university would never go as far as to actually ban plastic bags on campus.
In 2014 I was hired by Mount Allison to conduct an audit of University emissions and waste management policy, so at least, as of 2014, I was sort of an expert re: Mt.A’s environmental shortcomings. If anyone is reading this with incredulity because the University has since implemented a Sustainability Office, has a wind turbine in the middle of the academic quad, and has put some damn solar panels on the damn student centre- I sincerely apologize, a lot has happened in the year since I fucked off campus for good.
The situations mentioned so far, are just a handful of the things that would leave me fuming and ranting to anyone who would listen (apologies here to my roommate Kealin, you listened to my whining in a way that would put Oprah to shame). Over time I became increasingly angsty about just how two-faced my little University was when it came to meaningful environmental stewardship.
In October 2013 a few other incredible students and I got the opportunity, through a course on Environmental Activism (shout out to another badass prof here) to launch Mount Allison’s fossil fuel divestment campaign. I was so excited to finally be able to turn the focus of my activism onto the University. To be able to enact real change, and do good through the collective actions of many.
Since it began, what is now referred to as Divest MTA has grown exponentially, through the efforts of so many amazing students, faculty members, and with the support of the community. It is so much more than 3 students conducting a really cool class project. It’s a powerful, formidable movement, with the strength to truly upset the status quo at a school so secretly devoted to maintaining it.
Administrators at Mount Allison are always quick to smile knowingly, pat a student’s head, and wait for them to graduate. I have never felt so patronized as I have in board rooms, receptions, or casual meetings with those who make decisions at that school.
in the end, it was too much for me. I left Mount Allison before I graduated. My disappointment in the lack of progress, and the lies fed to me by that institution became too much, and I bailed. And although I certainly don’t wish I was back there, I do feel guilty. I feel guilty for letting my professors down, I feel guilty for seemingly abandoning my Divestment family, and I feel bad for not personally maintaining that pressure on admin to do better.
I saw today that DivestMTA has launched an alumni campaign, and although I am not alumni, strictly speaking, I will support this campaign, and be involved in any way I am able. Fossil fuel divestment is important for so many reasons, but for me, for this situation, at this University, it is very, very personal.
For too long Mount Allison has been allowed to promote itself as more than your typical University. Because of it’s size, and incredible educators, the institution has been able to promote this ideal identity, despite malpractice and subversion of responsibility to students in favour of that to donors, all in the name of fiscal responsibility. My two least favourite words in the entirety of the English language.
Although the mantra has become somewhat overused by the divestment movement, Bill McKibben’s words still ring true: if it’s wrong to wreck the planet, then its wrong to profit from that wreckage. These are words that Mount Allison needs to acknowledge the validity of.
Those in charge of decision making at Mount Allison (I’m looking at you Dr. Campbell, and Mr. Inglis) need to stop throwing “fiscal responsibility” in the faces of Divestors, and those in support, as if those two words alone are capable of winning an argument, diffusing a movement, and obscuring the truth all in one go. If “fiscal responsibility” was truly a valid argument, then over 500 institutions worldwide, including the Rockefeller estate (yeah, the original Oil family) wouldn’t have divested already. Forbes wouldn’t have written an article titled “The Financial Case for Divesting from Fossil Fuels”, and solar and wind power wouldn’t be the fastest growing means of energy generation in 2015.
Mount Allison, you cannot call this the year of the Environment with your record so drenched in oil. I love that Naomi Klein and Tzeporah Burman both spoke in the President’s Series this year, but that is not enough. What you have been doing for years, and are continuing to do to this day can only be called Greenwashing... Or bullshit. I’ll give you the privilege of choosing.
I might not be able to return my diploma come May 2017 if you choose not to divest, but as of right now, I’m fucking glad I don’t have one at all.
To view DivestMTA’s press release calling for alumni support, click here
To sign DivestMTA’s petition, click here
To follow DivestMTA on Facebook, click here