Tuesday’s Divest SU and ESF protest calls for Syracuse University to stop investing in fossil fuels, or divest. It’s good that students continue to voice their opinions on issues they care about. But those participating in the protest should realize that the decision for SU to divest is likely multi-faceted, and it could take some time before the university is able to withdraw its investment in fossil fuels. Students should recognize the ways SU is turning into a greener campus, as well as encourage more incremental changes.

According to Divest SU and ESF, the SU administration was presented with a formal request for divestment in March 2014. Other universities and institutions have managed to divest in fossil fuel industries. But the university denied the request in June, saying “the Committee concluded that the direct divestment of fossil fuel companies from the University’s endowment is not practical or fiscally-prudent.”

Students don’t know where university money goes to or what it is needed for and simply are not well-informed enough on SU’s budget to demand divestment. Because of this, protesting for an immediate change is not practical. Protesting to bring attention to a problem is more realistic than rallying for a change involving the university’s budget.

Though it was not fiscally-prudent for the university to divest in fossil fuels, SU recently made steps to be greener. On Sept. 19, SU announced that it purchased 123 million kilowatt hours for the years of 2014-16 from the clean-energy firm Renewable Choice Energy, a company with heavy involvement in the windmill energy industry. This increased SU’s investment in clean energy from 20 percent to 35 percent.  And in 2009, SU signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, an effort undertaken by a network of college and universities to address climate disruption, to be carbon neutral by 2040.

Students who urge the university that it must divest in order to be called environmentally friendly should consider the steps SU has already taken, and the progress it has made so far.

Change, especially change pertaining to the university’s budget, does not happen overnight. Students should continue voicing their opinions on this issue, but should not expect the university to be able to make this decision instantaneously.