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College/University divestment guide

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How to provide proof of divestment commitments

Our email for everything to do with our divestment campaign is xryouthcambridge@protonmail.com

In our demands, we listed several unethical and ecocidal industries/companies to divest from. If a college provides the following, we will consider it to be either partially or fully divested from a given ecocidal indsutry/company, or committed to becoming so:

1. An official public statement/announcement of the college’s decision/position/policy, which includes:

  • What the college is divesting from (for example for fossil fuels, is this all fossil fuels or just e.g. tar sands?)
  • Whether the college: never held direct/indirect investments at all, decided to divest previously but didn’t announce it publicly, or is making a new divestment commitment
  • The date by which the college commits to finishing the divestment process
  • Why the college is divesting
  • Any other relevant information (e.g. engaging with a pension provider to ask that they also divest, or declaring a climate and ecological emergency)

2. A page/post on the college’s website with the same details as above in perpetuity. It must:

  • Be easily accessible to the public, students, and staff
  • Show up in the college’s website’s search results for the keywords ‘divest’ or ‘divestment’, and the category of investment being divesting from (e.g. ‘fossil fuels’)
  • Not disappear at any point unless the website is under maintenance

3. A notification sent to our email address (see top of the page) providing links to the above

A college can announce divestment from each industry/company one-by-one, or announce a number of them together. Other forms of proof of divestment may be accepted on a case-by-case basis - we will consider any information sent by email.

Once a college has done the above, we will

  1. Update our categorisation of the college
  2. De-prioritise the college in our non-violent direct action (NVDA) campaign, instead focusing on other colleges that have not made as much progress. If a college has committed to full divestment, we will of course remove it from the NVDA campaign entirely!
  3. Publicise the college’s announcement to our social networks and through our press contacts

If there are good reasons for us not to make a specific announcement about the college’s progress, please email us so we can discuss this.