Our surprise victory at Stanford.

• Author: Provost, Graham
• Position: FIRST PERSON - Stanford University - Essay

As a veteran of the movement to combat climate change, I have been conditioned to expect disappointment. So when, as administration coordinator for Fossil Free Stanford, I was called into the office of the senior assistant to the Stanford University president in early May, I approached the meeting with apprehension.

There were good reasons for my concern. That very morning, Harvard had arrested a student demanding an open dialogue on fossil fuel divestment. Last fall, Brown University flatly refused student calls to sever ties with thirteen of the dirtiest coal companies. Efforts to implement climate policies at a national and international level had fared no better.

Together with three other Fossil Free Stanford organizers, I had strategized for hours about how to respond to the anticipated excuses and delays. But rather than facing hostility when we met the senior assistant, he told us that Stanford was preparing to announce its divestment from the coal industry. The Stanford Board of Trustees had heeded our calls for action, accelerated its review process, and was nearing a decisive vote. I was shocked. Eighteen months of dedication had actually achieved results.

Our group, Fossil Free Stanford, was founded in November of 2012 as part of a national and international campaign calling on universities and other institutions to divest their endowments from the fossil fuel industry. The movement was inspired by Bill McKibben's incisive article in Rolling Stone, which provided a call to action and highlighted the terrifying fact that 80 percent of proven fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground in order to slow climate change to a rate that avoids the most catastrophic consequences. The movement for divestment gave my generation, for the first time, a tangible way to take action against climate change. Within months, divestment campaigns had sprung up at more than 300 colleges across the country.

Stanford's campaign began with a small group of passionate students and a goal of compelling our university to spearhead a global movement. Led by Sophie Harrison, a remarkable freshman, we researched Stanford's official policies for evaluating divestment. Our first concrete step was to submit a request for review to the Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing, a body created during the apartheid divestment campaign of the 1980s to advise the board of trustees.

As we navigated the bureaucratic process, momentum toward divestment...