4 times student activists pushed Green New Deal agenda in 2023

The NYU Board of Trustees sent a letter to a student activist organization, Sunrise NYU, indicating it would fully divest in order to help combat climate change.

A climate activist student group at Harvard University published an article on Mar. 28 calling on Professor Jody Freeman to cut her ties with Alaska’s largest oil producer ConocoPhillips.

Climate activist groups on college campuses have been demanding a Green New Deal for years, believing climate change to be a formidable threat to their future. Student activists have gone so far as to demand their own universities cut ties with fossil fuels and held protests on campus. 

Campus Reform has compiled a list of 4 times student activists have pushed for a Green New Deal in 2023. 


1. NYU appeases pro-Green New Deal student group with fossil fuel divestments

In what appears to satisfy the longstanding demands of its campus’ climate change activists, New York University will cut off its investments in the fossil fuel industry.

On Aug. 18, the NYU Board of Trustees issued a letter to the student-led Sunrise NYU announcing that the school will no longer be investing in “any company whose primary business is the exploration or extraction of fossil fuels, including all forms of coal, oil, and natural gas.”


2. Harvard students demand environmental law prof cut ties with oil giant ConocoPhillips

Divest Harvard, a climate activist student group at Harvard University, published an article on Mar. 28 calling on Professor Jody Freeman to cut her ties with Alaska’s largest oil producer ConocoPhillips

Professor Freeman is the director and founder of the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard, and currently serves on the board of ConocoPhillips as an advisor on “climate change and the energy transition.” 


3. Students’ climate justice rally calls for banning cars on iconic street

A University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) student organization recently hosted a rally to ban cars in the name of climate justice. 

The car-free Telegraph Avenue rally, organized by Telegraph for People (TFP), belongs to an ongoing effort to help Berkeley “put its ambitious climate goals first.” 


4. Students push University of Washington to prohibit fossil fuel companies from recruiting on campus

A student group at the University of Washington (UW) is pushing the university to disassociate from fossil fuel companies.

The Institutional Climate Action (ICA) chapter at UW continues to hold sit-in protests to get the attention of the university. The organization’s overall goal is for Washington universities to divest from fossil fuel companies.