Ecologue

Bailey Murphy received a $50 SSI Travel Grant to travel to the Divestment Convergence in April in San Francisco. She wrote a summary explaining her experience for the Ecologue.

_____________________________________

Several weeks ago I sat in the front seat of a small red car with two individuals I had met only days prior, contemplating the motivations behind the overwhelmingly aggressive driving style of Jesse Pettibone. We were on our way to San Francisco for Convergence 2014, a nationwide conference focused on the efforts of students across the nation campaigning for their colleges to divest from fossil fuels. I had never been to a conference like this one, and I knew very little about the OSU Divest campaign or the concept and strategy of divestment in general. However, having recently been inducted into the position of Energy Coordinator at the SSI and as a member of the Students Engaging Tomorrow group, I figured jumping right in and attending the conference would be an ideal introduction to the world of Divestment.

The conference was designed as a series of workshops and open discussions divided up into blocks. I had the opportunity to choose the workshops I attended based upon my specific learning interests, such as ‘Divestment as a Solidarity Tactic’, and ‘Escalating your Campaign’. Although I attended several others, these two had the largest personal impact. Utilizing Divestment as a solidarity tactic between other social movements such as the Queer Movement and Prison Divestment was something that had never occurred to me before. The workshop discussed the ways in which an environmental movement such as Divestment can expand beyond the umbrella of environmentalism and connect with other social justice movements. I thought this was a really great way to view the movement, because although many social justice movements are specifically targeted (ex: Queer Movement), environmental justice affects all people across all spectrums, and in joining forces across movements stronger coalitions can be forged.

In addition to learning more about the campaign itself, attending the conference was inspiring in the sense that I was able to connect with students from across the nation (and Canada!) and hear about their various campaigns, and the ways in which they were progressing. In talking to other students, one of the most beneficial things I learned was about strategies for campaign demonstrations in order to increase student body awareness, which is something our own Divest campaign here at OSU is currently working on. Overall, the conference taught me a lot about Divestment and how large of a movement it really is, gave me a lot of creative ideas for escalation and demonstration, and left me with a feeling of positivity about the future of Divestment here at Oregon State.

– Bailey Murphy