4 • The Southwest Portland Post
FEATURES
November 2012
Students ask Lewis & Clark College to remove coal from investments
By Jillian Daley
The Southwest Portland Post
Lewis & Clark College is known for its
robust environmental studies program
for undergraduates and respected en-
vironmental law program for graduate
students.
Students involved in the Divest Coal
Campaign at Lewis & Clark say there’s
at least one more thing their school
could do to improve its status as an
eco-friendly school: Remove coal from
its endowment investment holdings.
Last month, the group delivered to
College president Barry Glassner about
800 signatures from undergraduate stu-
dents who support their cause.
That’s a good chunk of the 2,141 un-
dergraduate students that U.S. News
& World Report’s 2013 edition of Best
Colleges said are enrolled at the 137-acre
campus at 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road.
“We need to invest more in clean
energy or the planet is going to spiral
down,” said Lewis & Clark senior Fiona
Murray, who signed a petition during
the campaign’s field day exhibit on Oct.
4 in front of Templeton Student Center.
Last month, Michelle Kim and other
Divest Coal Campaign leaders at the
College invited Glassner to sit down
with them to discuss the matter, and
he said he could meet with them in late
November. The students asked to meet
with him sooner.
“We don’t want to be put on the back-
burner,” Kim said.
Glassner forwarded campaign leaders
to Anna Gonzalez, the dean of students,
who was scheduled to meet with the
Divest Coal Campaign students late
last month.
“We’re proud of the rigorous environ-
mental programs we offer here at Lewis
& Clark,” said Tom Krattenmaker, as-
sociate vice president of Public Affairs
and Communications at the College.
“Beyond that, we have no comment.”
Kim said the College needs to stand
up against the dirty coal industry, citing
a Physicians for Social Responsibility
report in 2009. The report links coal to
four out of five of the leading causes of
death in the nation: heart disease, can-
cer, stroke and chronic lower respiratory
diseases.
The industry impacts health because
coal combustion releases hazardous
substances including mercury, particu-
late matter, nitrogen oxides and sulfur
dioxide, says the report.
More than 386,000 tons of 84 hazard-
ous air pollutants are emitted from the
nation’s more than 400 coal plants, ac-
cording to an American Lung Associa-
tion report in March 2011.
Kim said it is
contradictory
for a college that
aims to educate
its students on
environmental
issues to invest
in coal.
She said no oth-
er Oregon college
has a coal dives-
titure campaign,
although Reed
College students
recently evinced
interest in launch- Michelle Kim, one of the organizers of the Divest Coal Cam-
ing a campaign paign participates in a field day exhibit in front of Templeton
a f t e r h e a r i n g Student Center at Lewis & Clark College, Oct. 4. (Post photo
about Lewis & by Jillian Daley)
Clark’s efforts.
sibility, is what helped ignite the Divest
Lewis & Clark’s campaign is part
Coal Campaign at Lewis & Clark.
of a national effort involving about 40
Kim said she wishes to further not
campuses. The Divest Coal Campaign
only
the College’s campaign but also the
has its roots in the Energy Action Coali-
nationwide
movement. One campaign,
tion, founded in 2005. It is a coalition of
at
Hampshire
College, as of late October
50 youth-led environmental and social
had
gotten
its
administration
to nix coal
justice groups working for clean energy
from
its
endowment.
Kim
said
if Lewis
and against climate change through col-
&
Clark
succeeds
it
would
boost
the
laborative campaigns, according to the
private
liberal
arts
college’s
reputation.
group’s website.
“It would be a big win for us and a big
Its coalition partners include As You
loss
for coal,” she said. For more infor-
Sow, a group in which Kim is involved.
mation,
go to www.wearepowershift.
Her involvement in As You Sow, a
org/campaigns/divestcoal.
group that promotes corporate respon-
Maplewood Notebook
During a public safety presentation Oct. 10, Portland Police Officer Scott Foster
told Maplewood neighbors that he had received complaints about coyotes in
Southwest. (Post photo by Jillian Daley)
(Continued from Page 1)
The church will be collecting items
not eligible for curbside recycling:
rigid plastic, batteries, block Styro-
foam, corks, printer cartridges, light
bulbs and small appliances. For more
information, visit www.community-
recycling.org.
Triangle Weeding and Planting:
From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 3 and 11,
volunteers are invited to help pull
weeds and plant native vegetation
at the Triangle, about 100 square feet
of land at Southwest 55 th Avenue and
Nevada Court. Tools will be provid-
ed. Gaddis recommended bringing
gloves, sturdy shoes and rain gear.
The Maplewood Neighborhood As-
sociation meeting is now being held on
the second Wednesday of the month at a
new location, the Maplewood Elementary
School library, 7452 SW 52nd Ave. The
next meeting is Wednesday, November
14 at 6:45 p.m. For more information on
MNA activities and events, email maple-
wood@gmail.com.
Multnomah Blvd Sidewalks
(Continued from Page 2)
25 th Avenue there will be a pedestrian
crossing with a flashing yellow beacon.
There will be a final public meeting on
the project in April, Ross said.
Project Manager Rich Newlands of
the Bureau of Transportation confirmed
this information. The project will cost
approximately $4 million, and is cur-
rently the subject of negotiations with
the Bureau of Environmental Services
as to “who will pay for what.”
This may change some features of the
project but not its certainty, Newlands
assured The Post. PBOT expects to go
out for bid on the project and will begin
construction in “early spring,” he said.
Editor’s Note: This will be the third con-
struction project in as many years along this
beleaguered stretch of road. But neighbors
are excited about the prospect of being able
to use the new Multnomah Boulevard side-
walks to walk from Multnomah Village to
the new Safeway store under construction
at Barbur Boulevard and Capitol Hill Road.
— Don Snedecor
Coming in the December Edition...
What do Hollywood
femme fatale Mayo
Methot and Nu Café
waitress Vivian Robinson
have in common? Find
out next month as The
Post follows paranormal
investigator Clyde Lewis and his Ground Zero crew
on a ghost hunt in Multnomah Village.