Loyola Students Protest Annual Climate Conference Claiming Hypocrisy (March 19th, 2021)

Story by Joel Ortiz

Thursday morning at noon is an overcast day with extreme winds. Senior student, Grace (“G”) Shapiro of Loyola University Chicago, stands in front of the School of Environmental Science building with several peers.

Shapiro was one of fifteen student activists, part of the Loyola branch of the Sunrise Movement, gathered in protest of Loyola’s Climate Conference.

The conference aimed to address youth activism and the university’s responsibility to address climate change. However, the environmentalist group protested what they saw as hypocritical and performative behavior from Loyola administrators.

G cited the arrest of several student activists during last summer’s protests lead by the student organization, OurStreetsLUC, that sought to address allegations of racist behavior from faculty and Loyola’s contract with Aramark food services among other concerns regarding institutional racism.

“Loyola is saying that they support youth activism when in actuality we have seen examples that they don’t. They might act like they are listening to groups by having meetings with groups like OurStreets, but it’s not comprehensive enough”, G said.

At 12:20pm, G began to protest in front of the S.E.S. building leading chants of, “climate justice is racial justice”, “support — Grassroot orgs”, “fossil free LUC”, and “support your students”.

Image of G Shapiro commencing the protest alongside 22-year-old graduate Michael Lacermeyer. Photo by Joel Ortiz

21-year-old Junior, Claire Foley, passing out signs for fellow Sunrise Movement Student Activists. Photo by Joel Ortiz

Shortly after, the group marched on to the Sullivan Center where they began another round of chants. They continued forward to the front of the campus chapel Madonna Della Strada, the Norville Training Center, and finally ended at the Damen Student Center.

It was here that Senior Eric Luu, studying environmental policy and co-coordinator of the Loyola Chapter of the Sunrise Movement, shared a speech written by the former head of Fossil Free LUC campaign, Shirya Patel.

The speech referenced the Loyola Divestment movement that has been fighting for Loyola to part with their investments in the fossil fuel industry. Instead, they want to reallocate funds to invest in “local businesses, lush community gardens, and a plethora of affordable housing options.”

The sentiment was echoed by 21-year-old Junior, Claire Foley who said, “What they don’t show you is that they invest 14 million dollars a year into the fossil fuel industry.”

The protest ended with former Loyola Student, Marie Leaner. Marie, now in her 80s, was invited for the first time in over 60 years to speak to the student activists about her experience protesting the segregated pools in the Lewis Towers (circa 1963).

Leaner drew parallels between the work that she did in the 1960s with the current protests at the university. In closing, she ended her talk by reciting Alexander Hamilton’s famous quote, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”