Tonight’s town hall to update students on divestment action taken so far, what to expect
While national attention and a strong media buzz surrounds the significant vote on divestment faced tomorrow by Dalhousie’s Board of Governors, the Dalhousie Student Union (DSU) has been moving towards divesting its own investment portfolio of fossil fuels and petroleum for months.
A town hall discussion on divestment is being held tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Student Union Building. This meeting, open to the public, aims to educate DSU members on some of the action the DSU is taking to divest.
If information regarding the amount or location of the DSU’s investments in fossil fuel and oil and gas companies is presented at this meeting, it will be the first time this information has been made public.
Council is scheduled to vote next week on whether they will amend their investment policies to mention divestment, but there is not yet any publically-available information surrounding the size or location of the investments.
The DSU’s audited statements for 2014 show they have $3,074,716 total in assets invested.
The DSU’s net revenue in 2013-14 was $1,412,912. Just $41,003 – 3.3 per cent of their total revenue – was from investments.
Outside of an ad published in the Gazette two weeks ago, this year’s DSU council did not promote awareness of their movement towards divestment until Nov. 14, when they started promoting tonight’s town hall.
If you would have been interested in knowing more about the DSU’s movement towards divestment even two weeks ago, you could only have known about it through Gazette reports, word-of-mouth, or by coming across relevant information in council meeting agendas and minutes.
For most of the last two months, you could have only received the minutes for some of these meetings by emailing the council chair, because some of them were put up weeks after being approved.
The Gazette was premature on Nov. 19 when we announced on Twitter that it was that night’s council meeting where the DSU would vote on whether to amend their Investment Policy to ensure they would divest from the top 200 companies in fossil fuels and oil and gas. This was due to a typo in the agenda for the meeting.
Councillors, students, Gazette confused by agenda typo
When the agenda for the council meeting of Nov. 19 was released online two days before the meeting, it included a Divestment Motion under section “10. New Business” in the agenda. The motion lays out ethical reasons for why the DSU should divest.
Full text of the Divestment Motion
Because the motion was under New Business, the Gazette believed the motion would be put voted on at this meeting. We also believed this because the section of the agenda labelled “11. Notices of Motion” contained no items.
When the Gazette posted a Tweet shortly before noon on Nov. 19 saying the DSU would vote on whether they divest that night, it started some commotion. One reader said they were surprised to hear the vote was that night.
Rebecca Haworth, a DSU representative to Dal’s Board of Governors, said on Twitter she emailed DSU president Ramz Aziz after she reviewed the agenda. He told her the motion was only to be noticed that night.
@DalGazette @KatieRaeP @WilliamConey I emailed Ramz when I reviewed the agenda and was told that tonight is just a notice of motion!
— Rebecca Haworth (@RebeccaaHaworth) November 19, 2014
When the Gazette openly asked on Twitter why the item would not have been under the part of the agenda reserved for Notices of Motion, Haworth said she would ask Aziz again.
The DSU’s other Board of Governors representative, JD Hutton, also expressed surprise at the agenda.
@DalGazette @RebeccaaHaworth typo on the agenda? Unsure, it caught me by surprise too.
— John Hutton (@JD_Hutton) November 19, 2014
She soon Tweeted, “Ramz will amend tonight’s agenda so that the Divestment Motion is under section 11 ” Notices of Motion” “.
When the Gazette saw this, we Tweeted: “Thanks for the update! @DalStudentUnion, will students get any more info on the DSU’s investments before councillors vote?”
The DSU’s Twitter account did not answer this question. An hour later, they Tweeted:
The DSU Divestment Motion is on the agenda for tonights council meeting! Agenda: http://t.co/AWF51PeQEr Watch Live: https://t.co/IDIJSfax6E
— DalStudentUnion (@DalStudentUnion) November 19, 2014
The agenda linked to at dsu.ca/councildates still shows the typo. The link to their YouTube page did not actually link to a livestreamed meeting of council – with a different person filming the proceedings, the video was posted to an alternate DSU YouTube page. It may be viewed here.
There was no answer after we asked over Twitter, “Is this motion being voted on tonight or just presented?”
The motion, as it was presented in the agenda, makes reference to three of the DSU’s investment policy statements.
An email sent to councillors by DSU chair Andrew Christofi said the statements were “cumulatively 63 pages long and published by the Union’s Investment Advisor at TD Waterhouse”.
The statements were not attached to the email, but Christofi told councillors they could receive copies if they asked.
The Gazette asked Aziz on Nov. 21 if we could receive copies of the policies. Aziz said he was unsure and would look into it. We have not heard back.
The DSU has talked about their ongoing desire to divest their investment portfolio of investments in companies found in the Carbon Underground 200 list since early September.
The Carbon Underground 200 is an annually-revised list that, according to its self-description, “identifies the top 100 public coal companies globally and the top 100 public oil and gas companies globally, ranked by the potential carbon emissions content of their reported reserves.”
Aziz confirmed the DSU does invest in companies present on the list at the council meeting of Sept. 22. At the meeting of Nov. 19 he announced that the DSU’s Board of Operations has reviewed the changes and will receive a report from the union’s Investment Manager, who will meet with the board on Nov. 27.
The motion on divestment is scheduled for a vote at the next DSU council meeting on Dec. 3.
Were we premature to announce the DSU would vote on whether they would divest? Let us know in the comments.
Looking back at what was said around divestment promotion
When the 2014-15 DSU executives were up for election in March, most of them gave statements to activist group Divest Dal on their stances towards divestment, according to Divestdal.ca.
Aziz was quoted as saying he would make divestment “a high priority for the DSU’s staff, communications and executives in the long-run.”
Vice President (Student Life) Danny Shanahan said, “As VP Student Life next year I would help Divest Dal by helping them reach students from across campus and help them with educating them about the Divest Dal campaign and responsible investments.”
Since September, the DSU has only acknowledged ongoing action towards divestment at the DSU or Dalhousie level a handful of times on social media, and all within the last week. Some DSU executives also tabled in the lobby of the Student Union Building on Friday to promote the town hall.
While the DSU staff position of Divestment Commissioner has been open for applications for over two weeks, and has been discussed in council meetings for longer, the DSU has not announced they are hiring for the position over Twitter or Facebook.
The position has not been directly announced on DSU.ca, and you would not find it on their website unless you look specifically for their “Hiring” page on a whim. Their only direct promotion of the position was in a Gazette ad on Nov. 14.
Tonight’s town hall to discuss DSU’s efforts
The same Gazette ad that mentioned the Divestment Commissioner position referenced a Town Hall discussion on Divestment to be held on Nov. 24, which has since been promoted a couple times by the DSU on Facebook and Twitter.
The complete description for this event on Facebook is as follows:
“Come learn about what divestment is and what the DSU is doing to promote divestment on campus.
This discussion will include an update on the DSU’s progress with divesting our endowment fund as well as an update on the Universities progress with divestment.
Open meeting: all DSU members welcome!”
While that description only mentions the DSU’s endowment fund, the Motion for Divestment lists three investment policy statements to be amended:
- the DSU Endowment Fund Investment Policy Statement
- the DSU Health Plan Reserve Investment Policy Statement
- the DSU Venture Fund Investment Policy Statement
The last DSU town hall was on the topic of finance. It was held in September and attracted approximately five people who were not on DSU council, three of whom were there in their capacity as Gazette reporters. Fewer than five of the approximately 30 non-executive members of council were present.
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