Reports just coming in suggest that the University of Florida student senate has voted in favour of a “green new deal” late on Tuesday, becoming the first public university to adopt such a resolution through student government.
The mandate – which was unanimously passed – calls for sweeping campus-wide measures to tackle climate crisis that include just transition, total divestment from fossil fuels, disclosure of the university’s financial ties within the private sector and a ban on receiving research funding from the fossil fuel industry.
The latest development comes amid ongoing climate denialism in the state. Governor Ron DeSantis has cracked down on free speech at universities and shown support for the burning of fossil fuels. Additionally, the Florida legislature is advancing an energy resources bill that would delete mentions of climate change in the state law.
Cameron Driggers, `who is a first-year University of Florida business administration student and the executive director of Youth Action Fund, called the vote “a stunning rebuke of the ideology of climate denialism that DeSantis has championed”.
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“Seeing a huge campus in a red state adopt a ‘green new deal’ is hopefully a sign that this movement is spreading to other universities around the country, and start treating this climate crisis like a crisis that it is,” said Driggers.
Sofia Aviles, a third-year student at the University of Florida and the president of Sunrise Movement Gainesville, said she and her peers are “trying to show the Florida government that despite their efforts, we are an institution backed by science”.
Driggers also noted that the school has received a significant amount of money over the years – specifically, as of June 2022, $2.3bn. That endowment is managed by a private foundation, and the details of where the funds are invested are not publicly disclosed. Students hope this mandate will ensure more transparency around where that money is going.
“It’s a public university, public money, and we don’t even know what it’s being spent on,” Driggers said.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
