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Harvard’s President Says Fossil Fuel Companies Are Not Blocking Clean Energy

Students talk divestment with Harvard President Drew Faust.

Corinne Grinapol and StudentNation

March 13, 2014

Last October, under pressure from a growing student campaign, Harvard President Drew Faust released a letter explaining why the university would not divest from fossil fuel companies. Her reasoning was questioned by both Harvard student Chloe Maxmin and former President of Reed College James Powell, among many others. Recently, Divest Harvard co-founder and StudentNation writer Alli Welton caught up to Faust and engaged her in a conversation, captured here on video, about her decision not to divest. By not divesting, Harvard is effectively using its “name to sanction the morally reprehensible acts of the fossil fuel industry,” Welton tells Faust. See how the president responds.

For more on the Divest Harvard movement, click here

Update: On March 10, President Faust sent a letter to Divest Harvard taking issue with the way the group was characterizing and contextualizing the conversation.

Corinne Grinapol


StudentNationFirst-person accounts from student activists, organizers and journalists reporting on youth-oriented movements for social justice, economic equality and tolerance.


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