One small glimpse of upcoming campus climate change politics

I started writing this from the Denver airport, on the way to Colorado College, where I presented on colleges in the climate crisis. I noodled further at different points on the next trip, to the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where I addressed their Effordability Summit. These are my first stops on the Universities on Fire book tour — and reach out if you’d like to host me!

Speaking of climate change, I’d like to share a fascinating story about a growing problem at one university. I am not so much interested in the affair itself but more in how it potentially signals things to come. I’m still traveling, so this won’t be long.

The story concerns Harvard* law professor Jody Freeman, one of whose specialties is environmental law. From what I’ve seen she looks committed to addressing climate change. Yet at the same time she sits on (and is paid for sitting on) the board of ConocoPhillips, a major fossil fuel company, recently in the news for winning the Biden administration’s approval to expand operations in Alaska.

This board position has elicited conflict of interest charges on campus. To begin with, the Guardian article describes faculty criticizing what they see as a contradiction: “Colleagues say Freeman’s fossil fuel ties raises serious questions about a conflict of interest, while threatening to damage the university’s climate credentials.” A leaked email develops the point further:

[Harvard’s] Salata Institute asserts it ‘will…