Those involved in the effort to divest Syracuse University said the university’s decision to prohibit fossil fuel investments is a positive step, but more needs to be done to ensure the movement is successful.

SU announced on Tuesday morning that it would stop its endowment funds from investing in fossil fuels. The announcement came after two and a half years of campaigning for the change by the student group, Divest SU.

When the school announced its formal commitment to divest endowment funds from coal mining and other fossil fuels, Emma Edwards was at work.

“I’ll be honest I was checking my phone while I was at work,” said Edwards, a founding member of Divest SU. “But I was getting so many calls and texts that I knew something important must be going on.”

Although Edwards, a senior geography and policy studies dual major, said she was “so unbelievably happy” when she heard the news, she added that she thought the decision “kind of came out of nowhere.” She added that she hopes the university’s commitment will start a chain reaction and wide spread phenomenon across the country.

SU officials met with members of Divest SU in February to share information and continue dialogue on the possibility of divestment from fossil fuels. Edwards said the meeting was “disheartening” because members of the SU administration at the meeting seemed to have negative feelings toward divestment from fossil fuels.

Divest SU is a campus organization that was formed in 2012 after Bill McKibben, a well-known environmental author, gave a lecture in Hendricks Chapel. Since then, Divest SU and THE General Body have both advocated for the university to divest from fossil fuels.

The decision means that SU will not “directly invest in publicly traded companies whose primary business is extraction of fossil fuels.” External investment managers at SU will also be directed to halt investments in these public companies, according to an SU News release.

Edwards said members of Divest SU and THE General Body will be working toward ensuring that the university’s commitment becomes a reality.

“Our work is far from over, we are still going to make sure that (the university officials) stick to their word,” Edwards said.

Bob Wilson, an associate professor of geography at SU, said trying to completely stop indirect investment of fossil fuels might get complicated because of certain companies’ different levels of involvement with fossil fuels.

“The devil is in the details,” Wilson said. “Nevertheless, this is a huge first step and it shows real leadership by the chancellor.”

Wilson said he is not sure exactly how long the divestment process would take SU to complete, but he assumes it would take a number of years. He added that divestment from fossil fuels is less important for the environment and more important for students.

“The climate is warming and it will continue to warm whether or not we divest from fossil fuels,” Wilson said. “However, in order to keep that warming at a manageable level, we need to stop the use of fossil fuels and Divest SU has been a part of this larger climate movement to make this happen.”

Ben Kuebrich, a member of Divest SU and THE General Body, said he is really proud of the campaign to divest, but said there is still a lot of work to be done. He said the movement has taken steps over the last two and a half years including collecting signatures, holding protests and getting resolutions passed by the Student Association and University Senate.

Divestment is only the first of many issues — including the closure of the Advocacy Center and cuts to the Posse program — that the university needs to work on, Kuebrich said.

“We got a win with divestment — a real victory would be doing more with other issues as well,” he said.

Published on March 31, 2015 at 9:30 pm

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann