"I just got e-mails from a couple students from Santa Clara University (California) who have been here for Spring Break in the past. Their schools new president met with them today to tell them that SCU has divested from Massey. This has been four years in the making tours and talks when they are here and at school; students going back year after year to talk to assorted administrators; writing letters to the editor, doing presentations and starting Mountain Mondays, when they all wear their I Love Mountains t-shirts on the same day around campus to raise awareness... Our hope is now to get the rest of the schools to follow suit!"

"Presidents receive many kinds of letters. They address a wide range of issues, and an early one caught my eye. Two students, Douglas Wheeler and Julia Mock, wrote to protest the universitys investment in a company noted for environmental degradation.

"Massey Energy mines coal through a process of mountaintop removal, a process witnessed by the students during an immersion trip to Appalachia. In my inquiries, I learned from the president of Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia that, yes, Massey Energy causes widespread damage to the environment in that state. This was corroborated by the research of a student intern in Environmental Studies. From our Finance Office I learned that the university did hold a small amount of stock in the company.