Back in April, College Insurrection reported that the divestment movement was beginning to grow at Dartmouth. Nicholas P. Desatnick of Dartlog now reports an update and the news isn’t good.

Inside the Environmentalist Echo Chamber

If you haven’t yet encountered the divestment movement, you will soon. Ever since its inception in the pages of The Rolling Stone last summer, it has crept up on college campuses throughout the nation, leaving bewildered administrators and conservatives in its wake. After inspiring a University-wide referendum at Harvard in November, legions of Chaco-clad climate-types have carried the movement throughout North America and beyond. Now it has infested over 413 colleges and civic organizations around the world, including our very own.

In recent weeks, Divest Dartmouth has enjoyed a great deal of success across all corners of the campus. Beyond the usual gaggle of Green groups, it has attracted support from Greek organizations, varsity athletes, religious groups, campus publications, and even aspiring finance-Gods. Its frequent meetings have been documented extensively in the local press and its student divestment petition has won nearly 300 signatures to date. Perhaps most remarkable of all, a number of environmental studies classes have gone so far as to examine the movement’s efforts within their “eco-activism” units and add the topic of divestment to their syllabi.

Divest Dartmouth, then, has gained momentum like no environmental group before it and has the potential to become a lasting fixture within the campus’s political debate. As a result, it appears that Dartmouth has yet another problem, one that has gone unaddressed in its recent protests and attempts at community reflection: somewhere along the line, it has institutionalized a severe distrust and misunderstanding of the very economic system that it is meant to serve.