UBC Insiders On Air, Episode 19 – Board Protests and Divestment

Alex Hemingway and Milan Ilnyckyj, divestment campaigners at UBC and U of T, respectively.

The Board of Governors meetings this week provided more than enough fodder for this week’s whole episode. We talk about more secret meetings, play some tape from the faculty-led “UBC Clean” protest of the Board, discuss UBC’s decision not to divest from fossil fuels, and the return of Fire Hydrant. Our interviews this week are with Alex Hemingway of UBC C350 and Milan Ilnyckyj of Toronto 350. They walk us through the respective fossil fuel divestment campaigns they helped lead and why the idea is entirely compatible with fiduciary duty.

We also have a bonus track with lots more tape from the lively faculty protest, with on-location speeches and interviews from a slew of faculty members: Mark Mac Lean, Bruce Rusk, Leah Keshet, Carla Nappi, Carrie Jenkins, and Jennifer Berdahl. There’s shouting!

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Links from this episode:

• The extremely transparent UBC Board of Governors held more secret meetings which couldn’t be more normal.
• A group of mostly faculty and students protested the Board meeting. Maayan hung out with the protestors while Neal was inside the meeting room.
• Fire Hydrant made a triumphant return to the Board of Governors.
• At least the University of Calgary just came out and said they wouldn’t divest. UBC made the same decision after pretending to think about it for over a year.
• The UBC Faculty Association has written to new Board Chair Stuart Belkin and CC’ed Premier Christy Clark and Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson renewing their call for an external review of the Board.
• The AMS also echoed calls for an external reviewr.
• #governance #reform #accountability #dontseeit
• We’ll probably be censured for linking to these minutes of the Esteemed Afternoon Tea Society. If you can figure out what the hell is going on, please let us know.