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Harvard – Yale football game postponed due to student-led climate change protests

The collegiate football game between Harvard and Yale on Saturday was delayed after students and alumni stormed the field to protest climate change, according to CNN. As halftime was ending, students ran onto the middle of the field and the game was delayed for 48 minutes until police were able to escort the students off of the field, according to cbssports. Students and alumni from both schools led the protest and were demanding the colleges stop the funding of fossil fuel companies. ~

Three student groups led the protest: Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, Fossil Free Yale and Yale Endowment Justice Coalition. Following the demonstration, the groups said in a statement,

“Harvard and Yale claim their goal is to create student leaders who can strive toward a more ‘just, fair, and promising world’ by ‘improving the world today and for future generations.’ Yet by continuing to invest in industries that mislead the public, smear academics, and deny reality, Harvard and Yale are complicit in tearing down that future.” The groups added, “We demand that our universities take responsibility for their role in perpetuating the climate crisis and global climate injustice — we call on Harvard and Yale to fully disclose, divest, and reinvest their holdings in the fossil fuel industry, putting an end to business as usual and taking meaningful action towards building a more just and stable future.” ~

The students who participated in the protest believe that if the universities divest from companies associated with fossil fuels, other institutions will follow. “They believe that they can engage with these companies and get them to change their fundamentally extractive business models, which we think comes from a place of naivety amounting to gross negligence,” Yale student Nora Heaphy told the Guardian. Karen Peart, media relations director for Yale University, said the school supports freedom of expression but it doesn’t “allow disruption of university events.” ~

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