As many as ten students from the University of Tasmania have occupied the office of the Vice Chancellor, refusing to leave until UTAS cooperates with their requests for the university to send an official representative to a Divestment Q & A organised by Fossil Free UTAS.
The event was originally encouraged by the University and would see the Chief Operating Officer, Mr David Clerk, represent the Uni’s position on fossil fuels. The event has proven to be controversial before it even began, as just weeks beforehand the University pulled it’s representation without explanation.
“We’re disappointed by the response from UTAS but not surprised, given the highly political nature of fossil fuel divestment and the university’s troubled investments – we can see why they would just like to ignore us,” said Tom Crawford, Spokesperson for Fossil Free UTAS.
“We’re outraged that our course fees are being invested into fossil fuel projects that are exacerbating climate change, especially whilst studying sustainable issues” said Mr Crawford.
“The University of Tasmania has the opportunity to be a leader on the issue of climate change by divesting its investments from the fossil fuel industry, and given the current financial performance of the sector, it makes financial sense to consider divestment,” Said Mr Crawford.
The students, undertaking a diversity of courses and degrees, had taken all reasonable steps to engage the university and to secure a replacement for David Clerk, such as phoning, writing emails and attempting to meet with Peter Rathjen the Vice Chancellor, in person.
“We would like to be able to use this time to study for exams and write essays, not campaign for UTAS to take climate change seriously. You’d be forgiven for thinking UTAS was being run by Maurice Newman,” Said Mr Crawford.
Fossil Free UTAS is gearing up to host their Divestment Q & A tonight with guest speaker’s including prominent barrister Greg Barns, chairperson of Tasplan Super Naomi Edwards and representative of 350.org Vicky Fysh. Whether the University of Tasmania will send a representative to stand by their fossil fuel investments is yet to be seen.
