voice.scrippscollege.edu
February 21, 2013
The Scripps Voice Inside...
5Cs consider divestment from fossil fuels By Katherine Goree ‘16 Staff Writer
Features² We take on feminism in a special double-length spread pages 6-9
T Op-Ed The Violence Against Women Act: what’s the controversy?
page 3
he 5C endowment is nearly $3 billion. Part of it is invested in fossil fuel companies--those in the business of coal, oil, and natural gas. However, many 5C community members see the colleges’ investment in fossil fuel companies as contrary to the schools’ values and wish to divest from fossil fuel. Divesting would mean not investing in fossil fuel companies in the future, as well as selling any current fossil fuel holdings. The Claremont Colleges Divestment Campaign, which began last semester, wants to divest the Claremont Colleges endowment from the fossil fuel industry in the next five years. The campaign has
photo | Jess Grady-Benson (PZ ’14)
garnered attention from media sources such as “The New York Times” and “Rolling Stone.” The campaign is especially intent on eliminating companies on gofossilfree. org’s list of Top 200 Fossil Fuel Companies from the endowment. The list is roughly ordered by the amount of carbon dioxide that the companies release into the atmosphere. Severstal, a Russian coal mining and steel company, tops the list. Other companies on the list include American oil companies Exxon Mobil Corp., BP PLC, and Chevron Corp. On Monday, Feb. 11, the campaign
hosted a panel of 5C students and professors to discuss the pros and cons of divestment. The panelists had different opinions as to whether divestment would be worthwhile. John Jurewitz, energy economist at Pomona College and William Ascher, economics and government professor at Claremont McKenna College, said that divesting the 5C endowment would not impact fossil fuel companies. The companies, according to Jurewitz and Ascher, are so large and have such high revenue that they do not depend on the schools’ investment for financial support. Most panelists agreed that divestment alone is not enough to help slow climate change. A few said that the 5C community needs to push for more environmental policy, such as cap and trade taxes on fossil fuel, at high levels of government. Some community members believe that, even though the colleges may not be able to put a dent in fossil fuel companies, divestment is the right moral action to take. The different colleges are in the process of working with their trustees to achieve a solution. Though nothing has yet been decided in regards to divestment, the process of reaching a conclusive stance is underway.
Shadowboxers Anonymous to perform at Motley Coffeehouse By Dagny Xinyue Lu ‘15 Staff Writer
Student Life Exploring tenure. What exactly is it and how do you get it? page 12
News Motley to host 5C dean panel on sexual assault prevention page 2
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he Shadowboxers Anonymous, a duo of acclaimed slam poetry artists Laura Yes Yes and Kim Johnson, will be performing at the Motley Coffee House on Friday, Feb. 22. The performance will be open to all five Claremont colleges as well as the greater Claremont community. The performance is a part of a Residential Life Program event titled “The Shadowboxers Anonymous: Empowering the Other.” The event is hoping to spark a new set of dialogue on campus. “We’re hoping that bringing the Shadowboxers will really set the stage for a dialogue about being ‘the other,’ be it through spoken word, lyrics, or art, and bring the Scripps community together to celebrate personal identities and the struggle that might accompany the development of those
Yes Yes & Johnson
identities,” said Margaret Nurimba ’14, one of the organizers of the event. “We planned this event keeping in mind that it is so easy to feel otherized, and a lot of the time, people don’t talk about it,” Nurimba continued. The event will feature an open mic opportunity and a poetry workshop with Yes Yes and Johnson.
“Writing in itself is empowering: it allows us to figure our own brains and feelings out. Performance is empowering: at its best, it creates a transcendent space wherein a room of people are allowed to think, feel, and hopefully, become a little more whole together,” said Yes Yes. continued on page 10
1030 Columbia Avenue | Claremont, CA 91711 | Box 892 email: scrippsvoice@gmail.com | Volume XVI • Issue Eight