When Gonzaga students began urging their University to live up to its mission and divest from the companies with the largest stores of carbon fueling the climate crisis, it was not clear whether the student body, faculty, and staff would support them. Three years on it is now clear: the representative bodies of Gonzaga’s students, staff, and faculty all support fossil fuel divestment. The Gonzaga Student Body Association (GSBA) voted in favor of divestment in the spring of 2017. The Gonzaga Faculty Senate voted in favor of divestment in the spring of 2018. And now the Gonzaga Staff Assembly Executive Council has declared its support for divestment as well.
“The Staff Assembly Executive Council supports the student effort to encourage the Gonzaga University Board of Trustees to divest from the 200 most carbon-intensive companies.
We acknowledge that the Gonzaga University Endowment Fund is ultimately and solely the fiduciary responsibility of the Gonzaga Board of Trustees, and as such, our vote is meant to support students that are living into our Jesuit, Catholic, humanistic mission to care for creation.”
The students, staff, and faculty of our great University are speaking to our Board of Trustees with one voice: embrace a path to meaningful divestment from the fossil fuels driving climate change.
