StuCo Beat

In response to the ongoing campaign for the divestment of the Academy’s endowment from the fossil fuel industry, Student Council held an extensive discussion and vote on the topic at Tuesday night’s meeting.Given the three available voting options, 21 Council members voted for divestment under any circumstances, 17 voted against divestment under any circumstances and 40 voted that they would like more information before making a decision.The discussion addressed reasons for divestment and its relation to the Academy. During the discussion, Principal Tom Hassan asked for student input for the Board of Trustees, who are discussing the issue in meetings this week. A school-wide discussion took place Tuesday evening as well (see related article, page 1).“We were asked to provide some feedback from Student Council concerning divestment, for the trustees to take a look at,” Council Vice President Emily Lemmerman said.President Alice Ju hoped that Council members would have strong opinions to provide student perspective on divestment. “We wanted to gauge student opinion so that how the student body felt would be factored into the trustees’ decision,” she said. “The trustees run the school, but I believe students should have a say in how our endowment is used.”Council members also discussed how divestment affects the Academy. Lemmerman said that divestment would go along the lines of the Deed of Gift and the school’s environmental mission statement.“It relates to Exeter in that in the Deed of Gift, and certainly in line with the general values of the school, we care about goodness and knowledge not only as individual values, but the intersection of those things,” Lemmerman said. “We also have an environmental mission statement; both of those things would provide some support in the case for divestment.”Due to the lack of details on how divestment would impact the school’s endowment, many Council members were hesitant to vote on the issue. “The general gist of the meeting was that people wanted concrete statistics, because whether or not we, as a school, should divest was dependent on the effect upon the endowment,” Ju said.Before adjournment, Council held a vote with three possible choices: divestment is necessary regardless of any sacrifice, Exeter should not divest its endowment, or more information is needed before a decision can be made. “By having a three-pronged vote, it seemed like we got to represent the Council well,” Lemmerman said.The results of the Council vote will be reviewed by the administration and trustees so that they can come up with a final decision that includes the best represented opinion of the students.