On Earth Day, students and faculty cycled through a four hour study-in at the Stern Quadrangle with signage calling for environmental action.
GreenUR, a student-led environmental advocacy group, organized the study-in as a reachable step for students to take action and destress in nature in the midst of finals.
Around 30 students and faculty gathered at the quad in the first hour studying, chatting and playing hacky sack beside signs that said “Climate change is real, so are Trump’s lies,” “No pipeline” and “Hold polluters accountable.”
Senior and GreenUR coordinator Zoe Cultrara said the study-in aimed to unite campus groups on the interconnectedness of environmental and social justice issues.
“We have different advocacy groups on campus, but oftentimes we don’t work together,” Cultrara said. “I wanted this to be a moment where everyone’s invited to start working together and collaborating more, because there’s strength in numbers.”
The NAACP is one campus advocacy group that joined in solidarity with GreenUR.
“Sustainability and environmentalism ties so close into environmental racism and a lot of other things that affect our community,” junior Shelby Richards said. “Being here to support an event like this is really important for our organization and our members individually.”
The study-in also called for UR’s divestment of the school’s $3.2 billion endowment from fossil fuel companies, a movement that erupted on campus in the past few years.
“It’s important that, even in small ways, we can show the university that these are things we still care about,” junior Genice Thomas said. “Even if it’s not prioritized on a large scale, students will still show up.”
The Earth Day event sparked after GreenUR joined the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition, an alliance formed in 2013 that unifies colleges across Virginia calling for sustainability and environmental justice, Cultrara said.
As an organization under VSEC, GreenUR hosted a training last week educating attendees about a gas plant that Dominion Energy is trying to build in Chesterfield, Va., Cultrara said. The goal is to mobilize communities statewide by educating and submitting comment sheets urging the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to issue permits against the plant.
“They’re trying to put out trainings so people know what’s going on, we know how to fight it and to get support across the state because that’ll make it stronger,” she said.
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Thomas added that environmental justice advocacy is crucial as UR promotes carbon neutrality by 2050.
“The big thing for me is putting your money where your mouth is,” Thomas said. “Sustainability is a different ball game, and we really have to do things differently if we want different outcomes, because the way we’re going, it won’t be good.”
Contact news editor Ava Jenks at ava.humphries@richmond.edu
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