(Updated)—Alders unanimously voted to throw their support behind the hundreds of environmental protesters who rushed the field during the Yale-Harvard game, and to call for all charges to be dropped against the 50 who were arrested.
The Board of Alders voted on that nonbinding resolution Monday night during its regular bimonthly meeting in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.
The vote came just over a week after hundreds of people flooded the field of the Yale Bowl in Westville during halftime at the 136th annual contest between the Yale and Harvard football teams, also known as “The Game.”
Those protesters garnered national and international news coverage as they called on their university to “diverse their endowments from fossil fuel corporations and instruct their fund managers to cancel holdings in Puerto Rico’s debt.”
Forty-eight people were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Two more were charged with both disorderly conduct and criminal trespass.
The resolution unanimously passed by the alders on Monday “joins with the Cambridge City Council in expressing support for the protesters at the 136th edition of the Game for their action to encourage both universities to disclose, divest, and reinvest their holdings in the fossil fuel industry and in Puerto Rican debt.”
It also “calls on both universities to ensure that the legal rights of the protesters are fully protected and that all charges are dropped.”
Thomas Breen photo
East Rock Alder Charles Decker.
East Rock Alder Charles Decker, one of the dozen-plus alders who introduced the proposed resolution along with the New Haven Peace Commission, said that the halftime environmental protest took place “to demand that Yale and Harvard, whose endowments have a combined value of over $70 billion, divest from their holdings in fossil fuel extraction and their holdings in Puerto Rican debt.
“The Board of Alders recognizes the climate crisis and the Puerto Rican debt crisis. The board further recognizes that Yale, one of the richest institutions in the world, must take the lead in providing solutions.
“We support the protesters, and ask that all charges be dropped and that no disciplinary action be taken.”
Ward 1 Alder Hacibey Catalbasoglu, who graduated from Yale College last spring, joined Decker in encouraging his colleagues to support the resolution.
“My alma mater says that it wants to train people to be leaders in society,” he said. “If what my former classmates were doing isn’t leadership, then I don’t know what is.”
“As we all know,” he concluded, “when Yale and Harvard take a stance on an issue, many other institutions follow suit. I hope that this is the first domino to fall.”
When asked for comment, Yale spokesperson Karen Peart directed the Independent to a statement written by Yale President Peter Salovey on Dec. 1.
“While Yale does not favor divestment,” that statement reads, “our Investments Office engages constructively with investment managers on the climate impacts of their portfolio companies. Since 2014, the university has followed a policy of supporting shareholder resolutions calling for company disclosures that address climate change issues. Yale asks its outside endowment managers not to hold companies that disregard the social and financial costs of climate change and that fail to take economically sensible steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Click here, or see the bottom of this article for Salovey’s full statement.
Monday night’s full Board of Alders meeting.
Read the full adopted resolution below.
WHEREAS: on November 23, 2019 at the 136th annual Harvard-Yale football game, also known as “The Game”, students, alumni, community members, and faculty staged an action to demand that both universities divest their endowments from the fossil fuel industry and from holdings in Puerto Rican debt; and
WHEREAS: Hundreds of spectators ran onto the field during halftime at The Game, to support both Fossil Free Yale and Divest Harvard in their mission to get their universities to divest from fossil fuel industries and to cancel their holdings in Puerto Rican debt.
WHEREAS: Dozens of protesters were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and received misdemeanor summonses for taking this stand to demand divestment and show leadership on climate action; and
WHEREAS: it is true that #NobodyWins until the universities fully disclose, divest, and reinvest their holdings in the fossil fuel industry and in Puerto Rican debt; and
WHEREAS: The Cambridge City Council unanimously passed a resolution at its November 25, 2019 meeting in support of those arrested during the action at the 136th edition of The Game; and
WHEREAS: that resolution expresses complete and unwavering solidarity with all the protesters and the organizations that made it happen and calls on both universities to ensure that the legal rights of the protesters are fully protected and that all charges are dropped;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT: the New Haven Board of Alders joins with the Cambridge City Council in expressing support for the protesters at the 136th edition of the Game for their action to encourage both universities to disclose, divest, and reinvest their holdings in the fossil fuel industry and in Puerto Rican debt; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT: the New Haven Board of Alders also calls on both universities to ensure that the legal rights of the protesters are fully protected and that all charges are dropped; and
BE IT ALSO FURTHER RESOLVED THAT: upon adoption of the Resolution the City Clerk be and hereby is directed to forward same to Yale President Peter Salovey and Harvard President Larry Bacow on behalf of the Board of Alders.
Yale President Salovey’s Dec. 1 statement about the protests.On Yale-Harvard weekend, many of us watched one of the most exciting comebacks in the history of Yale football — leading to an unforgettable double-overtime defeat of Harvard and an Ivy League Championship. Our students performed magnificently.
The game will be memorable for a second reason. At halftime, students (and some alumni, parents, and friends) from Yale and Harvard conducted a demonstration at midfield principally advocating for the two universities to divest endowment holdings from fossil fuels.
Excellent police work led by our chief of police, Ronnell Higgins, was met, in the end, with a cooperative response by most. I am grateful for this shared sense of restraint and understanding. My thanks also to Yale and Harvard coaches, Ivy League officials, and ESPN for working together to finish the game before dark.
Reflecting on the day and on reactions from members of the Yale community and beyond, I find two things to be especially important.
First, we all share an interest in upholding the right of community members to teach, learn, speak, perform, and gather without undue imposition. For that reason, Yale has rules and disciplinary procedures that support free expression while prohibiting significant disruption of campus activities. But even more important than these rules per se is our collective belief in the underlying principles they are designed to protect.
Second, Yale is committed to addressing climate change substantively and relentlessly — and with increasing intensity. In these very weeks, our faculty are planning new avenues of teaching and research as part of our initiative to invest in “planetary solutions.” Separately, a committee has been meeting regularly in order to form a more aggressive strategy for making Yale a carbon-net-zero campus: it will report out soon. And we continue to be one of the only institutions to have imposed a carbon charge on our own buildings.
While Yale does not favor divestment, our Investments Office engages constructively with investment managers on the climate impacts of their portfolio companies. Since 2014, the university has followed a policy of supporting shareholder resolutions calling for company disclosures that address climate change issues. Yale asks its outside endowment managers not to hold companies that disregard the social and financial costs of climate change and that fail to take economically sensible steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Yale will continue to engage with community members who have concerns or ideas about investment policy. The Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR) advises the Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility, a standing committee of the Yale board of trustees that is responsible for making recommendations to the full board and implementing policies related to issues around investor responsibility. Membership of the ACIR comprises two students (one graduate and one undergraduate), two alumni, two faculty, and two staff members. The ACIR holds regular meetings and meetings upon request by members of the Yale community. Additionally, its student representatives make themselves available to their respective student communities. Yale wants, and benefits from, community input on its investment policies.
Yale has the will and the capacity to make a profound difference in the fight for our planet’s future. In this shared work, we must above all find strength in what unites us.
Peter Salovey
President, Yale University
I look forward to similar support from our alders for First Amendment demonstrations in New Haven in the future.