Divest Harvard Blockades Mass Hall Again

UPDATED: May 14, 2015, at 12:20 a.m.

Students from environmental activist group Divest Harvard reassumed their positions in front of Massachussetts Hall on Wednesday morning, blocking entrances to the administrative building for the second time this semester in protest of the appointment of new University Chief Financial Officer Thomas J. Hollister, who is a former oil executive.

Around 30 protesters calling Harvard to divest its $35.9 billion endowment from fossil fuels blocked the three entrances to the building—which houses the offices of top Harvard administrators including University President Drew G. Faust—at 6:45 a.m. The group was still there late Wednesday morning.

In April, the group staged a continuous weeklong blockade of Mass. Hall. Protesters also staged a sit-in at the Harvard Alumni Association and blocked entrances to University Hall—another administrative building in the Yard—for part of that time.

Members of the student activist group Divest Harvard blockade entrances to Massachusetts Hall on Wednesday to protest the recent appointment of Thomas J. Hollister, a former oil executive, as University chief financial officer. By Jessica M. Wang

Faust, who has been repeatedly inconvenienced by the protesters, has maintained that the University should not divest, arguing that Harvard focuses its efforts to address climate change through research and teaching.University spokesperson Jeff Neal wrote in a statement that Harvard administrators “respectfully disagree on the means by which a university should confront [climate change].”

“We would hope that the advocates for divestment might recognize and respect the reasonableness of other views even as they vigorously express their own,” Neal wrote.

Hollister formerly served as the chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Fortune 500 energy distribution company Global Partners LP. He also previously served as president of Citizens Bank of Massachusetts and vice chairman of Citizens Financial Group.

Divest Harvard co-founder Chloe S. Maxmin ’15 charged that his appointment is “another example of Harvard aligning with the fossil fuel industry over students.”

Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana stopped by the blockade at about 7:15 a.m. to greet the students and talk with them.

“As a University, we have always had values of free discourse and engagement and, at the same time, an obligation to make sure the work at the University can continue,” Khurana said.

In the middle of exam period, many students studied for finals and wrote papers during the protest. Laptops and papers scattering the yard, and several said they planned to leave the blockade to take Wednesday exams. Divest Harvard co-coordinator Jasmine P. Opie ’16, who was finishing a take-home exam outside Mass. Hall, said the group wanted to protest Hollister before leaving campus for the summer.

After receiving no direct response from administrators by the late afternoon, Divest activists moved to protest outside Farkas Hall, where Faust was introducing a panel on the movie “Whiplash,” according to Maxmin.

—Staff writer Mariel A. Klein can be reached at mariel.klein@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @mariel_klein.