Eight students gathered on the Quad Wednesday morning to protest what they called the number one bank-roller of environmental destruction.
Armed with signs that read Hey Citibank: People Over Profit, members of the Rainforest Action Network student group stood outside the Graduate Resource Center to oppose Citigroup, the nation’s largest financial institution and parent company of Citibank and Solomon Smith Barney, among others.
Citigroup is knowingly engaging in environmentally destructive business practices, said senior Alex Patriquin, an organizer of the event.
The students timed the protest to coincide with Citigroup’s on-campus recruitment day and planned to present a petition with more than 200 signatures to recruiters who were interviewing graduate students, Patriquin said. Students who signed the petition pledged not to work for Citigroup until the company reforms its environmental practices.
Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, applauded the student protesters for their efforts.
I think these campaigns are really successful, he said. This is exactly the kind of campaign that Citibank will be forced to listen to.
Kevin Maloney, a GW English professor, joined the protest.
When we use a credit card or take out a student loan, we are causing environmental destruction and exploitation, Maloney said.
Maloney said he objects to Citigroup because it underwrites environmentally damaging projects, including the construction of the Chad/Cameroon Oil and Pipeline Project in Africa, the Three Gorges Dam in China and the logging of ancient redwoods in northern California.
Valerie Orth, an event organizer, said the University is partially to blame for Citigroup’s influence on campus, and administration officials should take action.
If we make GW aware of what’s going on with Citibank and Citigroup and their actions then they should take the responsibility to make sure they don’t come on campus (to recruit), she said.
It is not GW’s responsibility to screen employers that come to campus, said Richard Sheehe, public affairs specialist for University Relations.
Citibank is one of 35 to 40 companies which hold recruitment drives this semester alone, he said. The University is not about to try to screen what companies students can interview with.
Leah Johnson, spokesperson for Citigroup, said evidence the Rainforest Action Network presents is misleading and inaccurate.
Citigroup conducts business in a morally, socially and environmentally responsive manner, Johnson said. While we agree with the group’s causes they support, we object to this strategy of spreading false information.
Johnson said Citigroup has in the past and will continue to finance projects that are beneficial to the environment. She cited Citigroup’s involvement in the purchase of park land in Illinois and Arizona and the acquisition of preserved land in Florida as examples of Citigroup’s ongoing commitment to protect the environment.
Some students said they were not impressed with Wednesday morning’s protest and the Rainforest Action Network’s ongoing efforts to thwart Citigroup’s influence on campus.
Freshman Dana Monchick said the group’s efforts will not have much of an effect.
Taking everything into consideration, if Citibank was the closest bank, I’d still probably go there, she said.
But some students said that they will take the group’s anti-Citigroup message to heart.
I have a savings and checking account at Citibank, freshman Ryan Douglass said. I’d be interested to know more about what’s going on with my bank.
