The Daily Tar Heel
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The Daily Tar Heel

TO THE EDITOR:
According to Jonathon King, the director of the UNC Management Company, the investment company in charge of UNC’s $2.2 billion endowment, it is not worth including our endowment in UNC’s commitment to end the production and use of coal.

During a meeting with Beyond Coal student organizers, King stated that the only part of the endowment that UNC Management Company can control is $122 million, or 4.1 percent of the total endowment.
This small percent was what UNC divested away from Sudan in 2007, a divestment that King states was necessary because it dealt with human right abuses, not a simple environmental issue.

We would ask UNC to make that case to Appalachian residents who have lost their land, jobs, and health due to mountaintop removal mining, or the families of the 24,000 people who die prematurely every year because of coal pollution.

NASA’s top climate scientist Dr. James Hansen states unequivocally that coal is “the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet.”

Furthermore, coal is a risky financial investment, with The Washington Post classifying it as a “dead man walking” last year.
UNC was one of the last universities to divest from Sudan. But with coal divestment, we can be the first.

Yes, $122 million may only be a small fraction of our total endowment. But moving those stocks out of the coal industry is an important first step.

Taylor Timmerman ’12
Political science
Coordinator, UNC Sierra Student Coalition

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