by Marian Mohamed and Kenneth Tran, GZR Newsroom

(This article is jointly published between Ground Zero Radio, an initiative of the Vera Project, and the South Seattle Emerald.)

On Friday, May 19, a coalition of climate justice student activists, local community organizations, and student groups gathered at the University of Washington (UW) campus to call on the university — specifically UW President Ana Mari Cauce and Provost Mark Richards — to make a written commitment to a “95% by 2035” decarbonization goal in the campus’s direct energy portfolio and to use construction as an opportunity to increase campus accessibility. The protest included a march and speeches, and then thunderous chants from the protesters echoed against the humming of the UW’s colossal power plant machine as other protesters began to chain themselves to its perimeter. According to UW Sustainability and UW Facilities articles, 93% of campus emissions derive from the methane gas plant, which produces steam to heat and cool the university’s buildings.