As the media outreach coordinator in 2009-10 for the Sierra Club’s Coal-Free UNC campaign–part of the Sierra Student Coalition’s national “Campuses Beyond Coal” campaign and one of the Club’s first college campus victories againt coal–I helped generate more than 50 campus, local, statewide and national media hits. In less than one year, our campaign won a commitment from UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp to stop burning coal at the campus cogeneration plant by 2020. My work included drafting and editing press advisories and releases, pitching stories to reporters, planning press conferences and events, meeting with editorial boards, writing and drafting op-ed columns, and coordinating the publication of letters to the editor from campaign supporters. As the campaign coordinator for the UNC Sierra Student Coalition, I have continued working in environmental advocacy on campus. I helped launch a campaign to divest UNC’s $2.1 billion endowment from the coal industry that has partnered with the Campus Y, been endorsed by Student Congress and gained 77% support from the student body in February 2013 campus elections.
Media Interviews
- Bloomberg News: North Carolina Chapel Hill Campus Commits To End Coal Heating By May 2020
- National Journal: President Interrupted
- The Independent Weekly: James Hansen joins students in calling for coal-free UNC; UNC task force says campus should end use of coal by 2020; UNC says it will go coal-free in 10 years.
- The Herald-Sun: UNC establishes Energy Task Force; Anti-coal voice at UNC growing louder; UNC plans to go coal free via woody biomass by 2020
- The Chapel Hill News: Coal cutoff victory for activists
- WUNC: NC Voices: Tomorrow’s Energy – Campus Power
- Carolina Journal: Hansen to UNC-CH: Nukes Not So Bad
- The Carrboro Citizen: Scientists, students, Sierra Club call on UNC to drop coal
- The Daily Tar Heel: UNC trying to quit coal; UNC begins testing substitute for coal; UNC works to be coal-free; UNC coal-free goals delayed until March; UNC considering using torrefied pellets in place of coal; Torrefied wood pellets no longer an option for UNC’s coal-free goal; Wood chips could be UNC’s replacement for coal; UNC looks to save energy by funding sustainability projects; Sierra Student Coalition lobbies UNC to divest from coal-related businesses; UNC student will travel to D.C. for clean energy event; Planned Chapel Hill solar farm would power 1,000 homes.
Op-Ed Columns
- The Chapel Hill Herald (Stewart Boss): UNC should follow Duke’s lead in reducing coal use
- The Chapel Hill Herald (Stewart Boss): UNC coal use, Appalachian misery
Editorials
- The Chapel Hill News: Power struggle
- The Daily Tar Heel: Dependency theory
- The Carrboro Citizen: Cue the lux
- The Daily Tar Heel: Green in all the right ways
- The Daily Tar Heel: Green is a smart investment: UNC needs to include endowment holdings in its sustainability report
- The Daily Tar Heel: How to invest – or divest
Letters to the Editor
- The News & Observer: Campus warming
- The Daily Tar Heel: Shift to clean energy has to be led by Universities
- The Daily Tar Heel: Join youth movement to help the environment
- The Daily Tar Heel:Veto good for recovery and energy opportunity
- The Daily Tar Heel:Setbacks are part of the long innovation process
- The Daily Tar Heel: Fund to bring innovative energy financing to UNC
- The Daily Tar Heel: UNC endowment should not be invested in coal
- The Daily Tar Heel: SBP should address UNC’s endowment issues