"In 2016, the University of Massachusetts became the first major public university in the United States to sever direct financial ties with the fossil fuel industry. For years, relentless student organizing had been met with administrative intransigence and repeated rejection. But the Divest UMass campaign only grew larger, louder, and more determined. When protests escalated into sit-ins, administrators called police to break them up."
"After years of obstruction, the administration seemingly embraced divestment. President Marty Meehan lauded the students' "principled persistence," crediting them with having "put divestment on the agenda." Then-chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy praised their "passionate commitment to social justice and the environment." Eager to capitalize on the positive press that portrayed UMass as a progressive climate leader, administrators repackaged a grassroots victory as institutional branding, co-opting the storied history of campus activism and rolling out the slogan: "Be Revolutionary.""
In 2016, the University of Massachusetts pledged to sever direct financial ties with the fossil fuel industry after sustained student organizing. Students had previously pressured the university to dump $400,000 in coal stocks and then secured a pledge to withdraw an estimated $5–8 million in fossil fuel holdings. Protest escalation included sit-ins that led administrators to call police. University leadership publicly praised student persistence and framed divestment as institutional achievement. Administrators repackaged the victory for branding, adopting the slogan "Be Revolutionary" and promising a just transition to renewable energy, but follow-through on the clean energy transition has since stalled.
Read at The Nation
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