 Like to give a shout out to Roberta our finance camp a finance campaigner with the Sunrise projects Which is part of Black Rock's big problem last year. They had a win in getting Black Rock to divest from thermal coal She will join us later to discuss next steps This webinar will be recorded and posted on YouTube for everyone to share for those of you Joining us on zoom and Facebook if you can introduce yourselves in the chat box or comment section on Facebook and tell us your first name And where you are from and what inspired you to join the call Our guests today are Amanda Gaia Diego Esteban Pitzer College students who developed the campus campaign requesting that their college divest The school's endowment from Black Rock the student senate passed this request overwhelmingly 16 to 1 Amanda negaia Diego Esteban Welcome i'm going to pass it on to my colleague Kelsey Who has a set of questions to ask you take it away Kelsey? Hi everyone Thanks for meeting on here today I Guess our first question for you all is we just really would love to hear how you Developed the campaign initially and how you grew it Amanda do you want to start with the phone? um, yeah, I can start um so I was sort of loosely involved with the no tech for ice campaign going on the summer of 2019 So that campaign kind of focused on which corporations specifically tech corporations that profited from immigrant detention um and As a result of their work that those activists were doing a lot A lot of information came to the surface about which corporations as a whole were profiting from immigrant detention and private prisons and I found that many universities were really involved with this um Either the prison industrial complex or family separation and immigrant detention um And it you know kind of led me to want to research deeper into what the college I was about to enter into as a first year. Um What they were involved in um So yeah, it was a surprise then to learn that we had um a board of trustee member and our endowment sort of funneled through BlackRock one of the largest um Funders of private prisons immigrant detention among a lot of other things Yeah Yeah, um, and I think from I guess from like our Amanda's display on like the free wall and then Which sort of tied BlackRock to Pitzer. Um It's we sort of like took the reins It's sort of like being people that were really focusing on educating ourselves And then educating a larger student body Um, we made a lot of we started off like making a lot of posters just getting the information out there because it's a very like It's not something very simple. They can like find out It took a lot of work and effort from everybody else to find all the information And so the main goal is like spread all the news as much as we could um And then we we went out we reached out to presidents melvin oliver and the Head of the board trustees, um, do you remember his name again? Um and gold Yeah Yeah, um, and so we talked to them to hear their perspective like on why we have A vice chairman of BlackRock on our board trustees and why BlackRock is one of the companies that we choose to invest in down with um And then from all that it was clear that the administration didn't find any of this as being an issue Um, they they found as a BlackRock was a virtuous company that was helping them to like strive to for better investments And so we saw this all as being signs of greenwashing on the behalf of BlackRock Um giving BlackRock all this good press saying that pictures divested because of BlackRock Um, just didn't feel sit right for any of us. And so we continued pushing pushing until we got wrote the senate Resolution we spread it to as many students as possible guys may do as possible sign on We had over I think 150 signatures for students And then it eventually got passed in student senate 16 to 1 which was amazing That's really amazing. So I guess our next question you've kind of covered it already Um, but could you expand more on why uh, you chose BlackRock? uh, yeah so BlackRock it's I suppose it wasn't like a choice as it was like a choice for the administration to work with BlackRock um We doing like basic amounts of like research into BlackRock. We found out that the uh They're one of the largest investors in Private prison detention centers the largest one of the largest contributes to climate change And pits are being a college that is has very strong core values Too specifically of an environmental sustainability and social responsibility It was clear that our investment practices with our endowment was not fitting those core values and um Coming after BlackRock and coming after this whole our endowment was more to put pizzer in a line with their In line with their core values. Um, and on top of that um having allowing BlackRock to work with a college such as pizzer that puts social responsibility and environment sustainability in forefront is We allow ourselves to greenwash on their behalf, which is almost more problematic as it makes black it paints BlackRock as the beginning of life that they're not causing so much the environment And a lot of people Yeah, just to put some of the things that Gaia said into perspective Um of the unethical nature of BlackRock. Um You know, they are the biggest, um They are one of the biggest shareholders of private prisons and immigrant detention They have an 11 percent stake and 12 percent stake in 11 percent stake in core civic and 12 percent stake in geo group and together those Those investments in those shares are worth seven hundred and twenty eight million dollars Um, additionally, they're the largest The largest investor in coal companies around the world coal fired utilities oil and gas companies And companies that are driving deforestation. So It is incredibly as Gaia said, it's incredibly contradictory that uh school that is uh that grounds itself in environmental justice and responsibility and social responsibility is invested with this asset manager So I just want to turn to our participants. We have uh over 34 participants right now If any of you have any questions Um for the students or speakers Please go ahead and put them in your chat and the chat box or um comment on facebook and uh, we'll hold those questions to the end of the Webinar what I'd like to do now Is introduce cody our next facilitator Um and invite reberda In and to the conversation Great, thanks, nancy. Um, thanks to all the the awesome folks who've been sharing this story so far. Um Like nancy said this question is for all of the students as well as Uh, reberda. What are the next steps you all have? Uh with their campaign Yes, thank you so much everyone, uh for inviting me and for organizing This webinar. I just wanted to say like I am so, um, impressed and inspired by The organizing that's been happening a pizza college. Um, as you may know our campaign really focuses on the climate problem The black rock has and I always look at you all a pizza to really Expose the other problems the black rock has which includes the investment in private prison detention centers and the list goes on and um, so really yeah stuck to be here and uh in terms of uh next steps as well I I can only speak To the climate aspect of it and I would love to hear from students What are your next steps so that I can really learn from you and support your efforts as well? But um Very briefly, um for those who don't know actually in january, uh, larry think who's the CEO of black rock He issued is uh an annual letter. He does so every year He um over the years. He has positioned himself as the soul of wall street He goes on every year and sends a message to all the other CEOs of wall street And to his clients and basically tell them that we got to do good. Like we don't have to just um Think about profits, but we also have to think about social good And it's uh, it's ironic that this message comes from comes from him every year because As the students did a great job at uh exposing The issues with black rock. They are the largest investors in everything that is nasty on this planet From human rights abuses to um, you know, climate destruction companies. And so It's hilarious how larry think is trying to position himself as such leader um, and so that's how the campaign was started a couple of years ago really to um expose this contra addiction, uh, that black rock Has been driving and so this year in his annual letter. Um, he actually, um announced some very policies that um That are meant to Black rock exposure to uh, climate destructive companies. And so in their core policy, they pledged to um, divest, uh, some of their money from uh, from uh, call, uh companies, but As we and also they pledged to to, uh, increase the number of esg funds in their portfolio And also at some point a few months later, they also pledged to start working around To start engaging the companies that they're invested in that are driving deforestation and indigenous rights abuses in the amazon and other And other delicate ecosystems across the globe, but um as we took a deeper Look at these announcements and these policies We noticed that there was just so many flaws and so many loopholes. Um, and so You know, despite these announcements, actually, but black rock still remains the largest investor in everything that is bad On this planet. And so as a campaign right now, we're really continuing to a To pressure them to really keep them accountable for these announcements that they have made and not only just that but to improve These policies that they have announced because they're just like very weak and honestly, they don't do anything in terms of Solving their climate and human rights problems. And so so that's one thing that we're doing and then The other thing is shareholder season is starting I think it was uh, Diego who mentioned how black rock is also is the larger But the nature of its business is the largest shareholder company in a lot of these companies And so not only they can influence companies by threatening to divest their money But also they can threaten companies and ceos by the other proxy voting. So as shareholders, they have A huge amount of power by voting pro climate by voting pro human rights By voting pro indigenous rights. And so like their power is just immense And so shareholder season is starting in may and so black rock is going to be able to really vote Their conscience and these different agms. And so in terms of specific next steps, there's a lot of votes that they can That they can really exercise But there's one particular vote that I wanted to share with you all that I think it's really really important So black rock is also one of the major shareholders of uh, jp morgan chase, which is the worst bank Possible in the world that they are also the largest funder investor of fossil fuels And um, and actually they're independent Board chair one of the most powerful men on the planet His name is lee rayman and he calls all the shots at chase especially now that the CEO of chase is recovering from an illness and so So there's gonna be a vote in jp morgan chase agm where basically black rock has the power to Vote against the reelection of lee rayman and so why is this important lee rayman for those who don't know He's actually the former He's actually the former ceo And board member of exxon And so he spent his entire career Basically funding research to To deny the existence of climate change and also to really Manipulate the conversation happening around climate change. He was also part of the exxon new So really just like he knew very well what the issues with climate change were but he did a very Best like he used all this power and money and resources to make sure that there was not going to be any action taken in terms of tackling climate change and um, he was also Of the board of the api, which is the american petroleum institute Which is one of the biggest influential groups from the fossil fuel industry out there And right now, you know, it's on the board of chase. And so if you ever wonder how come chase is not taking any action to target climate change It's because of lee rayman and so So I really want to invite you all to stay tuned We are organizing a series of call in actions to really get black rock to vote lee rayman off the board of chase So I will follow up with more details But that's um, it's gonna be so critical the black rock hears from you all and thousands of other activists Across the u.s. Because their vote has so much power and influence and we can absolutely Absolutely get a huge bank like chase to change If we get off the uh, if we get lee rayman off the board So yes, thank you and stay tuned. I will send you more details soon Cheers Thank you, roberta for sharing your next steps. Uh, let's go ahead and hear what the next steps are for the, uh pitzer college students Yeah, so definitely like Uh dealing with the issues roberta mentioned And having the conversations around those are huge um We have compiled a lot of research and Um, luckily we were able to bring that research to students in it and get our resolution passed Um, as it currently stands, we are trying to bring that resolution to college council Which at our college is comprised of faculty staff and students and That council will be responsible for voting on it um Whenever the council reconvenes, obviously, this is a very Up in the air kind of situation um But we are currently lobbying for That to be voted on Because at that point once college council approves of Our divestment Fully from from black rock and from these issues Um, we hope that president melvin oliver will sign off on it and we will fully be divested We are aware that there is a huge potential for melvin oliver to veto um This bill once it gets passed um But I can let one of the other activists sort of speak on that Yeah, um, I can speak to that a little. Um So yeah, as amanda mentioned, there is a huge, um possibility that melvin oliver um With, you know, the history of uh, some undemocratic nature in the past, um You know, there's a huge possibility that he can that he will veto this and so You know, we're taking the institutional route for now, you know, we are Um, we passed this through through student senate and now it's moving on to the next governing body, you know college council and We think this is the best option to do first before You know, we take any action that is that is outside of the institutional realm Whether that be a college shutdown, which I think Some of my some of my other colleagues can speak to that. Um but yeah, um knowing that he can, um Veto this at any moment and knowing that he has vetoed very important, um legislation in the past such as our bds bill will our suspension from the university the israeli university of hypha um, you know, I think what we want to do is really educate a lot of the people, um at our college and at the other four colleges because When reflecting, you know as a coalition, I think we reflected a lot on last year's, um suspension of the israeli university of hypha study abroad program that we have, um You know, we thought that we needed to divest from that study abroad program because it discriminated, um Students on the basis of ethnicity and religion. Um So and we thought pitzer was being complicit when with, uh, palestinian oppression and in the israeli palestine conflict um So what we learned from reflecting on that is that you know, Popular mobilization really does work, you know, we really can make an institutional change if, um, you know, if all students if Masses of students are educated and are passionate about this issue. I think that's what really resulted from, um Last year's movement to suspend the university of hypha program study abroad program And so I think that's always an essential next step for any movement, you know, this, uh, education of of of all of all people, um Because we want people to know that we want people to strive for ethical investment We want these private institutions these huge multinational Corporations to strive for ethical investment and nothing less, you know, we want people to know we want, um People to know that we're not going to stand by when private institutions are profiting handsomely from As reberda mentioned, you know, some of the most unethical practices in the us And we want people to we want to show people that it is possible Um in this incredibly unethical capitalist world that you can value people over profit And I think maybe just one more thing to add. Um, also, can you guys hear me? Okay um So we we mentioned You know a lot of the there's a growing sentiment in the pigs or community Um, there are a lot of people are disillusioned with, you know, the undemocratic nature of You know the executive administrators in the past who really are the powerhold those in the situation. Um As we demonstrated when melvin oliver vetoed the To suspend the hypha program So there are there are a range of actions, right that we can take that fall under this realm of civil disobedience Um, and that would just require us to organize even further, especially with other student organizations that have similar stakes um In this issue in you know in the issues that black rocks invest in um, so If you're a student, um watching this right now in our part of an organization That is affected by issues that you know black rock was invested in please reach out Um, and we would love to organize further with with you all faculty as well Um, and that's something we're already in the process of doing. Um, certain affinity groups certain departments um That have shown support And I think beyond that as well You know pitchers one school that has this kind of relationship with black rock Um, so also looking beyond pitcher and organizing with other institutions And other organizations, um that are also in the same fight sort of like reberda Was touching on um and really trying to combine all their forces and and Because if one of them, you know, one of us hits them, you know, it might Slightly give a den or something. Um, but we'd have much more power if we were organizing Um across, you know, a white spread coalition of different institutions um organizations So Yeah, I think that was just one thing I wanted to add about looking beyond the campus as well and really thinking About the issues on a more macro level nice Cool. Thanks, estaban. And I think that on that on that same vein. Is there any other? Lessons that any y'all have to pass off for other students who are looking to start similar divestment campaigns On their campuses as well um Yeah, I can speak to this a little bit. Um You know, we've definitely it's been a learn as we go process people like uh, Diego worked on the the hypha campaign before so Um and and Dan Siegel as well. Um, so we we Bringing in people that have, you know dealt with similar campaigns in the past has has uh been a huge help and that would be one point of advice is to um Reach out to those kind of individuals who have experience. Um in these kind of campaigns and movements um With that just being persistent and keeping the conversation always kind of constructive Always positive in the sense of that you're creating um new ideas or you're Asking new questions and you're being persistent and you're not letting up um, especially when you're going against the school like pitzer and You know company like black rock who have Who who have gone through this, you know before with other organizations and and kind of Have a lot of experience fighting back So being persistent and and keeping the pressure is extremely important And something we've been talking already about before Um organizing with as many community members as possible, you know, looking for that common denominator with a lot of other groups and organizations You know looking at what the actual points of unity are that appeal to different groups in the community And bringing them all in because i'm sure You know the the more you dig deep and the more you you know more research you do in the more Conversations you have with different people you start to realize that there is a common denominator that everyone can organize around Anticipating counter arguments from the school and the company is has been huge um, so we can kind of be um When we kind of expect these responses where you know, we're ready with things to say about them And they're usually kind of these very capitalist for-profit, you know arguments That um have a certain logic and when you understand that There are there are ways to you know Present different logics like putting people before profit or putting the environment um before profit um And i'll add one more thing and then you know other people can add stuff in but um a big one was meeting people where they're at um You know a lot of people or you know, we're ready to get down immediately and you know already sort of know the nature of um companies like black rock um But a lot of people you sort of have to walk them through the steps and you know walk them through the arguments in a way that resonates with them um And not jumping immediately at you know the the core The core of it but sort of meeting them where they're at understanding their perspective and their background And getting them to where you're at and not judging someone immediately because they're they're not in favor of them Of the movement Yeah, I I want to add something to that. Um It's really important to meet people where they're at, you know, and I think this I think like it um as I mentioned earlier, you know, like we want, uh The masses of people to be educated and organized, you know, and I think meeting people where they're at, you know Is a really important Aspect of popular education, you know, um, you can't expect everyone to be at the Where where you're at, you know, and so it's important to meet those people where they're at and Help them understand and help yourself understand that this issue is very interconnected and that This organizer that you were, you know, trying to Build a coalition with also has a stake in this because as we've seen black rock is invested in some of the most unethical things And you know a plethora of unethical things in across the world So I think it's really important to meet people where they're at, you know, it's integral to popular education And one thing I did want to add I guess another Point of advice is coalition building, you know, I can't stress enough how important coalition building is as as the ban mentioned earlier We've been getting a lot of help, you know and just support From students for justice in Palestine, you know, this is something That they really care about as well. And so that has helped us out a lot because you know They are a very organized club on campus and You know as as the one mentioned this was a learn as we go, you know process So there was ups and downs and like the movement, you know, there was Um a lack of dialogue at one point, you know dialogue was being stifled because you know, because this was just such a controversial issue on campus, but You know getting the support from clubs like students for justice in Palestine was huge, you know, because Their club members were immediately in support and were willing to help in any way So coalition building can be really important and helpful Yeah, I think my own, um biggest piece of advice is that like no matter like how daunting a task may seem I feel like like anything is possible. Um, a lot of this like this issue seems like It would take years to like even address to like make it to this point But just from like the hard work of a couple of people we managed like make huge strides and have this resolution passed um And with that like you if you're trying to do any kind of activism work being a student and then trying to change your college You really need to be like the biggest thing is to be educated Because when you're trying to make a call like to make any, um movement like this the administration the staff always assumes that you come from a place of ignorance And so any communication they have with you they try and um, Sort of the little your understanding they try and talk down to you and then just telling Coming back with like that you do you do know the fact that you do know the research And then the things they're saying some of them like are just false Some of them are misconstrued all these things are ways and tactics for them to like put you down And being prepared to rebuttal and being very like confident all the research that you have done Is extremely essential in making any of these movements successful Yeah, definitely like the preparation aspect of things um and coalition building as Diego and Esteban mentioned just the fact that black rock was um or still is involved in so many different issues um there are many different groups whether it's students for justice and Palestine or um respective affinity groups um or the sunrise movement whose students have been doing a lot of really great work um They all have this connection of black rock funding these things and money really does you know Push these things further And without the funding a lot of these issues wouldn't be as prevalent as they are and so black rock being the root of a lot of these issues Was very important and very important to to let people know this issue impacts everyone really um And yeah, just um as gaya mentioned like continually fighting um you are as a student activist you're going to be you know Put down because the administration assumes you don't know what you're talking about um or they make the assumption that you know there's something else behind it or you just you know want to protest about something in reality um you know, this is a major corporation that is um knowingly taking part in a lot of these things um and just knowing that as a student activist like what you do does matter um you know the The work of kids or students in the past trying to Have us divest fully from fossil fuels and still some questions raised about that But the work those protesters and activists have done in the past the work of summarize movement kids across the nation And even back in the 80s with the divestment from South Africa um You know, those were extremely impactful movements And it really shows the power and the effort of student leaders um and despite you know the emotional and mental toll that it takes and the fact that you know we are full-time students and then Sometimes uh You know full-time full-time activists. Sorry about that. Yeah, I do have a bird. Um The um The fact is that we're not compensated for our work, but we Go about these things because we do truly care about the change that is going to come from them so knowing that When things do get really difficult because they they will get difficult Great, thank you all so a final question before we move over to q&a Um So uh knowing that a lot of us are under a stay-at-home order. Um, how can people get involved? Um immediately from their homes. Do you all have any suggestions? Uh, yeah, so we have a uh, we have like an online change.org petition set up that people can fill out You can send it to anybody and everybody to have uh to have them fill up So on final we're just trying to get uh as many signatures as possible just to show that just to show the pitzer administration more specifically melvin oliver our president That people really do care about this year and this is some change that they really do want and that Pitzer needs to hold that they're uh to hold true to their core values Yeah, and I think in addition to that just knowing You know taking time for yourself is okay. Um, this is obviously a pretty unprecedented time for everybody um, and I think a lot of people have this feeling that we have to be productive in In isolation and it's very difficult. Um myself I I've lost somebody to COVID-19 and I'm sure you know, it's an issue impacting almost everybody um, and so taking time for yourself that you know that rest is resistance um In making sure that you get what you need. Um, especially for student activists We've also got all of our our courses going on and dealing with um, you know, how are grades going to turn out how is You know the rest of this going to turn out in the midst of You know what feels like the end of the world sometimes Um, you know dealing with that. Um, yeah Yeah, your rest is resistance. I think that's also just really important Well, I just want to thank you all for joining and taking time out and so sorry to hear about your loss Amanda You all are just an inspiration and your tenacity and your persistency Is so inspiring To us and what i'm going to do now Um, is i'm going to pass it over to carly carly has been collecting The questions from our participants. So carly want to take it away Sure. Thanks, Nancy. Um, so thanks for everyone who has submitted questions in the q&a chat box Um, you know, it looks like all of the questions that were submitted have a very similar theme So i'm going to combine them and ask the students and also reberda if you can answer Um, a lot of people are interested in hearing more about Um, what are what your plans are for reinvestment, right? So, um, I think a lot of people on this call understand are on board with Um, the fact that black rock is invested in these terrible companies Um, but they're wondering what can we place our endowment in what should we be investing in and just Curious if you all have any thoughts on that. Um, so the first question was directed at reberda So maybe we can start with reberda and then move on to the students Uh, yes, I um, I am sure that the students have done research in terms of finding alternative asset managers to black rock and so I will let them speak on that um, generally speaking The asset management world just because capitalism sucks. It's really hard to find a good one And so I think there's a question of like reinventing the whole system to be honest. Um, and so There is no like good actor out there What I will say is that there are better actors. And so, um, there are potentially other asset managers that pizza could could contract out and and really, um, Send a message to black rock like you're gonna lose one of your Important clients because honestly university endowments are huge clients for for black rock And so it would send a huge signal to the asset management industry that you know, they're willing to Take their money away from black rock unless they see a change. And so, um, so there's one point There are other asset managers are a little bit better And I actually wanted to share a report that one of our partners released recently, um, they're called share action and they recently released a Scorecard and so they looked at asset managers not just in the us but also from europe And they basically graded them like based on their investments. Um, I think it was mostly focused on climate And so you can see that there are some asset managers in europe that they're way better Then the asset managers in the us you will see in this report that all the us asset managers are just the biggest laggards And so they're all terrible um, and I just wanted to also, um Let everyone know that a very, um Something that happened in january It was either like at the end of december or january. Actually, uh, japan's government pension investment fund, which I think it's Worth 1.6 trillion dollar, um, they actually moved their money out of black rock because at that time black rock was not Really taking any actual climate. They moved their money out of black rock and they basically opened a contract with, um Uh, a european a european asset manager company legal and general, uh, which you know, they're more aligned to To the the pension fund Sets of values and so it's totally doable. The other option is like pizzer. They could manage their own funds in house That's something that universities do I think for example, I went to uzi berkeley. Um, so this may be outdated information But when I was a student and I was also, um Helping with the with the divestment campaign if I remember correctly the ucs they managed their assets in house They did not have external asset manager. So that's an option too. Um, so Yeah, so that's kind of like my share on this, but I'm sure the students probably even have specific recommendation So I'll pass it on to the students Yeah, I mean to I'm sure gaya has the specifics on particular groups if we choose that route, um But yeah, also calpers um, so california, um State employees, uh Their board of administration also, um Start to divest from oil and gas and to sort of Be more engaged, um with access and be more engaged with workers rights and um, you know A more ethical Um standpoint when it came to investing. So, you know, it's also something that had Happened here in california. Um, and I think back in like 2009 Columbia university divested from private prisons um, so is not a radical notion it is not out of the um Out of the realm of possibility it is something that has been done before Um And it's it's not a huge ask But yeah, yeah, I think gaya has the specifics on groups Yeah, um, so giving like a little bit of background before I like talk about that um picture picture was once invested in fossil fuels and so in 20, I believe it was 2012 We made the decision to divest and then 2014 we eventually uh invested alongside black rock um And so like the steps to divesting is like Disclose divest and reinvest and to do a great job of disclosing that like we were invested in fossil fuels and then Divert different fossil fuels. However, they made they made that false step of uh reinvesting alongside black rock um, and so our the main our goal is to make sure that that last step is fall through in like a correct way and so one of the things that we have in our resolution is to Um, make sure that the decision as to where they choose to invest their endowment next is one that's decided by a larger discussion That's not limited just to the administration Um, so that would be like a discussion including faculty staff and students as well Um, this way it's like something that encompasses a larger body than just the faculty or just the administration Um as answering like a little bit more specific funds that we found our asset manager that we found ourselves um We found a little bit information about uh calvert asset management Trillium and boston common asset management. Those three are like the three ones that we found to be like the most uh I guess so should we respond to one of them? Um, but also I did read this. Um, the uh share action um file which is awesome Listing the top 40, uh, largest asset management companies across the like across the world and ranking them all And honestly if we find something that's like an asset manager on that list as well, that could also definitely be uh A great opportunity for picture drive that's instead What's really difficult is that as we're the student The the activists putting on like the burden of like pushing our college to do more People also expect us to be the ones to like uh reach out to these asset management companies Create the contracts do x y z when in reality we're full-time students We're not we don't have finance degrees. We're not being paid by our college um Our job has I think and then we I think we've been doing it almost perfectly is to disclose what Pitcher has been like the investment that Pitcher's been having Um, what's wrong with it? How doesn't fit with our core values and that and raising the raising the question that we should be divesting and finding something That's morally correct to invest ourselves with Yeah, the disclose aspect of things has definitely been um Where uh, not only Pitcher, but most colleges have fallen short um Obviously back in 2012 the disclosure aspect Was really pushed by student activists And it's troubling that Many of these colleges and universities hide their investments to begin with and then what we found throughout the past year is that um, you know, there's a lot of red tape that they want to put up in front of Their investments and there's a reason for that and it's really because their investments aren't ethical and the investments don't um You know fall within The core values of the school particularly pertaining to Pitcher um But yeah, so that's also just very important to note that the the disclosure aspect of it amongst everything else is A lot of burden placed on the students where it shouldn't be Awesome. Thanks everyone for kind of offering your thoughts on that. So those were the questions that people have It looks like Let's see. We have some comments From community members too, you know, it's important to address that um The code pink on our divest from the war machine campaign. Um, I just wanted to Let people know that if you go to that website, I posted in the chat box. We'll also send it to you via email We have an entire um Place where you can search actually funds. Um It's called we have a sorry a fund searcher It's called weapons free funds manager and you can go and search and see if the things that you're invested in Um is invested in weapons stocks or weapons manufacturers So if you go to our website, um, you can check out and search the funds that you're invested in By name and see if they're invested in weapons manufacturers So there are actually tools out there that can help you as well See what these asset managers and financial firms are actually invested in so I just wanted to draw people's attention to that too And it's in the chat box. That's awesome. Um And then just one more thing that before we move on to next steps and um kind of wrap up I just wanted to say that one question that somebody had it seems pretty simple That they're asking about the research that students have done on this issue Is there a place where fellow students who are wanting to get involved can find that research? So where can people find that research that you all have been mentioning? Um, yeah, we created a sort of a q&a power point which we'll have like Um, what is black rock and then answered those questions for you? And so we've created that and we can um Send it to you guys and It can be sent to everybody that's been a part of this uh livestream um And we also have a reader no We also have a yeah, so there's also a reader that we can share with links and information Yeah Fantastic and um all of the specific asset managers that you all mentioned We can also send that out because somebody was asking about that in the q&a. So we can send that information as well Um, yeah, so I just wanted to thank everyone again for joining us on this webinar and To the students for your knowledge and all of your energy that you've put into this campaign It's been very inspiring to hear from you um, and also Thank you, berberta for joining us and i'm telling us a little bit more about how black rock is invested unfortunately In the companies that are driving climate change um You know one thing that I think is really important about this webinar is that students at hitzer college have shown that even though black rock is Um, the largest a financial asset manager in the world. You can actually take it on in your local communities Um, and this is really the ethos that um drives our entire divest from the war machine campaign at code pink So I quickly just wanted to share my screen and show some folks um Next steps and resources that code pink has in case anyone is interested in Also starting their own divest campaign on their campus or in their community. So let me go ahead and share that with folks So you can see All right, hopefully folks can see my screen um So, um, as I said, um Code pink has also a divest from the war machine campaign. You can find more information about this at code pink dot org slash divest um Our campaign is really focused as I said on making sure that people in their local communities can organize against the war machine and it's various All the various forms that it takes one of the things that we talk about is divesting from black rock. We're also um really interested in making sure that local communities can divest from weapons manufacturers in Um, their city, but so local cities invest in these but also university endowments invest in specifically weapons manufacturers So it's really important that people feel empowered to take on these weapons manufacturers and black rock in their local communities So I just wanted to share with everyone some next steps that people can take. Um in order to start doing that right now um So everyone here has heard about all of the awful things that black rock is invested in from private prison companies to fossil fuel companies and then of course importantly black rock is the largest Investor in weapons manufacturers in the world and we're telling larry think to divest from war um And so you can go to code pink dot org slash larry think to sign our petition asking larry think to divest from the war machine Um And then I also wanted to draw people's attention to the fact But again We need to start these kinds of campaigns to divest from war and divest from black rock in our local communities All across the country in order to build a ground tall of support So we wanted to invite folks to sign up to join our starter divest campaign by going to the link here It's just bit.ly slash divest sign up and uh code pink organizer will be in contact with you to talk more about starting your own campaign so Those are my next steps Um nancy. Did you want to close out? Okay Well, let's just close out with um See if anyone has any last words that they would like to share with the participants again I want to thank the participants for joining today and asking um The tough questions uh for our panelists But is there any final words um dan? We haven't heard anything from you You'd like to add would you like to add anything? I'll just say that how inspiring it is to have students Who are accepting the responsibility as citizens and the responsibility? of their education education gives us more power to produce a Humane future and if we don't take that With our education We are not accepting the responsibility of it and these students are the very exemplar the very highest model of doing that and There's nothing more satisfactory and rewarding for me As a faculty member who's taught at pit sir for over 30 years To have students embrace with radical love that responsibility of their education to produce a better world And you know for me I've recently become a grandfather And I want to thank them for my two beautiful little granddaughters and for all of the world's precious babies Um, we need the work these students are doing and I know several of my faculty college are listening And I want to urge you To join these students and support them and broaden the support from the faculty For this social justice movement hit sir's radical past Deserves the radical future these students are trying to make happen and I just want to thank them Amen. So on that we will go ahead and close Our webinar for today and we look forward to taking action With you all in the future. Thank you