To the Editors of
The Spectator
,
First, we want to thank you for publishing Anoushka Aswin’s article “Carbon neutrality goal moved up to 2030” in the most recent issue of the
Spec
. Since an earlier carbon neutrality date for the College has been something Sunrise Hamilton has been campaigning for since we founded the hub, we were very proud to see the news covered in your pages.
We were concerned, however, that zero students were quoted in the article. While we are very proud of the work that Brian Hansen has done to achieve this goal and are happy to see him have a platform, we thought it would be remiss to not give credit to the many students who were also on the Sustainability Working Group (SWG) and not reference how this has been a topic of protest since
at least
the fall of 2019
.
In pointing this out, please know that we are not trying to claim all the credit for winning carbon neutrality by 2030. What we are instead looking for is credit to the many students on the SWG and the hundreds of students, faculty, staff, and alumni who joined protests,
signed petitions
, were part of the Student Assembly that
unanimously supported the campaign
, or otherwise spoke up to put pressure on the College to take the climate crisis more seriously.
Ultimately, our worry is that this movement for climate justice and action on the Hill could be treated like the Social Justice Initiative, whose work the College took credit for for years. It was not until the Day-Massolo Center’s 10 year anniversary did much of the campus even realize that the DMC was created in response to student protest and demands for a cultural education center among other changes, which has enriched our campus ever since. With the climate crisis looming, we cannot forget our movements and all the students who participated in them, else we forget every four years about our true power as a student body.
We also want to recognize that Sunrise Hamilton has not been active during this last semester and the writer of this article is a member of the class of 2025 who would not have personal memory of the initial protests for 2030 carbon neutrality. Our problem is not with the writer, but rather that more was not done to inform her about the full movement. For our part, much of our E-Board has been on study abroad or working on our theses, so we had to make the decision to go on a break for this semester, but we are already preparing for next semester.
In short, it is hard to continue organizing movements while burned out and under-recognized. This cannot be a problem for future movements on this campus if they are to make real change. To be clear, we do not see this as a problem based solely with the
Spec
, but rather how the entire campus interacts with activism and change.
Sincerely,
Madison Lazenby, Hub Coordinator, Spring 2020 — Spring 2021
Fatima Oliva, Hub Coordinator, Fall 2021 — Spring 2022; SWG Member, Spring 2021 — Spring 2022
Izzy Rutkey, Hub Coordinator, Spring 2021 — Spring 2022
Eric Santomauro-Stenzel, Fall 2019 — Spring 2020
Zoe Sauvé, Hub Coordinator, Fall 2019 — Fall 2020