Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA) has recruited more than 50 students to participate in a sit-in as it escalates its fossil fuel campaign, the group announced in a press release sent on Monday morning. BCA did not indicate where or when the sit-in would take place.
Students and alumni at Swarthmore College have staged a sit-in at their campus’ finance and investment office since March 19, according to the Swarthmore Phoenix, and climate activists at Harvard have occupied the president’s office and plan on holding a weeklong sit-in sometime in April, according to the Harvard Crimson.
A similar protest at Bowdoin could run afoul of the College’s Social Code.
In a list of activities that “constitute breaches of the Social Code,” the College includes “Disruption of the orderly processes of the College, involving obstruction of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary proceedings, or other College activities, including its public-service activities.” Occupation of College offices is given as a specific example of this sort of disruption.
Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster did not say whether or not the College would discipline students involved in the occupation of an administrative office.
“I’m confident students understand our Academic Honor Code and Social Code and having worked with students for a long time, I expect they will make good decisions,” he wrote in an email to the Orient.
BCA leader Matthew Goodrich ’15 said that those planning on participating in the sit-in know that they could face disciplinary action.
“We’re aware of that,” he said. “But we’re also aware that the College has denied us the proper rights and respect we deserve as students. The trend toward direct action unfortunately is a last resort, as we’ve been shut out of the more institutional channels.”
Frustrated in its effort to convince the College to divest, BCA offered the Trustees an ultimatum on February 13: If the Trustees did not appoint a divestment liaison to the student body by March 6, BCA would escalate its campaign.
In an interview with the Orient on March 3, President Barry Mills asserted that the trustees directed BCA to go to him with further concerns. BCA did not accept this explanation.
“In an act of deafness toward the students and faculty, President Mills has now appointed himself liaison,” the group wrote on its website on March 16. “As he will leave campus in the coming months, this does not fulfill our request to engage the Board in productive discussion and continue dialogue into next semester. In consequence, we reaffirm our intent to escalate this spring. The Board has not acted for climate justice, so we will.”