Today, Fossil Free Stanford deployed a brand-new pop-up art installation to shine a spotlight on the plight of communities around the globe that have been directly affected by the negligence of the fossil fuel industry. The piece is a tri-fold plywood construction sitting on a black plastic base simulating an oil spill and features quotes from the Chevron oil spill in Ecuador, the threat of sea level rise in Tuvalu and the drought in California, among others.

Two main criteria that ethical institutions typically ask when deciding to responsibly invest or divest are: (1) whether the product creates substantial societal harm, and (2) whether there are alternatives to the product or service readily available. This project answers the first criterion with a resounding YES, placing the voices from the frontlines in a location where the Stanford administration and the university community can no longer turn a blind eye.
 
The piece was built in just 24 hours and remained prominently displayed at the gates of the University for the daylight hours before students were forced to remove it. Numerous tourists, visitors, and curious passers-by stopped to view and photograph the art piece. It currently remains at the encampment for the duration of the sit-in.

An interview with Sophia Christel (Class of 2015, M.S. '16) on the evening of November 18, 2025 at the Fossil Free Stanford encampment.

Q: What is life in the camp like?

A: The atmosphere is really relaxed and positive. Morale is good. We have pretty impressive numbers; I was not expecting this many people to come out—and to stay.
 
People are sitting around doing homework, or doing their own thing. There are options for people to still feel productive, such as the teach-ins. We’re not just sitting around, not going to class—something that would be especially stressful for [workaholic] Stanford students! So it’s great when classes come to us.

Q: What kinds of classes did you take part in?

A: Professors and lecturers have been flexible and great about doing it. I was able to attend one class, Defining Smart Cities, which was broadcast via computer video feed. Another multimedia environmental communication class relocated here [to the Main Quad.]
 
Sometimes it can still be hard, because not everyone on campus agrees with our message or our action. So some professors might not move the class ‘as is’ but instead offer an optional special lecture for anyone who wants to come. Others teach, not as part of a class, but just for fun and the educational value.

Q: What do you hope happens next?

A: I really hope we get decisive action on the part of the administration. It’s been made very clear that they’re not representing the needs and desires of the University as a population with their inaction. If they respect us and truly want to represent us as students, staff, and faculty, then they should divest.

On Tuesday evening, the Stanford administration sent a missive to the Fossil Free encampment, proclaiming that "unscheduled events and other unsanctioned gatherings" were a violation of University policy and the Fundamental Standard, and warned of "potential consequences" if the students did not de-camp immediately to White Plaza.

Fossil Free Stanford's (somewhat cheeky, yet deadly serious) response was posted 24 hours later:

1) We're not moving
2) You're in violation of the University's Fundamental Standard

Fossil Free Stanford declared: "By choosing to continue to invest in the fossil fuel industry, thereby fueling climate destruction and environmental injustice, you are in violation of the Fundamental Standard. As a member of the Stanford Board of Trustees, you are expected to uphold our University's values and listen to the overwhelming consensus of the Stanford community."

Read the full text of both letters here.

UPDATE: Coverage in the Stanford Daily here.

Security guards took shifts in front of the University president's office, where the Official Notice From Fossil Free Stanford was posted on the door.

A regular Stanford class often feels like mindlessly consuming and memorizing information. This is going a step beyond that.

These ideas are being manifested in a real action. The community of people here—this community feels very real. It doesn’t feel superficial.

Day 2 of the sit-in revealed numerous moments of solidarity from all quarters.
 
Teaching
Teach-ins began this morning, as students took part in alternative forms of education. The first teach-in was conducted by Kevin Hsu (Urban Studies) who introduced students to “Taiwan’s Innovative Environmental Practices,” a meditation on how the island nation of 23 million became a country that is at once modern and traditional—at the forefront of technological innovation, but also avowedly ecological.

That morning, other instructors also relocated regular Stanford classes to show solidarity with the divestment movement, including the highly relevant “Multimedia Environmental Communication” (EARTHSYS292) class taught by Tom Hayden (Earth, Energy, Environmental Sciences) and Aishwary Kumar’s (History) dramatic exploration of “Gandhi in His Times and Ours (HISTORY196).
 
These regular Stanford classes complement the teach-ins targeted to students at the sit-in, providing a full slate of educational opportunities on the protest site. View the teach-in schedule here.

Bridging Movements
At noon, a number of participants attended the Rally to Uplift Student Voices Following Recent Attacks, organized by the Muslim Student Union at Stanford that responded to the violent and tragic events in Beirut, Baghdad, Paris, and elsewhere. Several Fossil Free Stanford participants expressed a desire to show solidarity with other campus movements against oppression.

Snacks in Solidarity
The lunch menu featured Sandwiches from Synergy (which surely ought to be the name of a café). Many campus co-ops are cooking meals for the protesters as an action of solidarity with the Fossil Fuel Divestment movement. Unexpectedly, local Palo Alto clergy and the Stanford Junior Class President also dropped off snacks, to be enjoyed by students during quiet moments.

Meanwhile, the schedule of teach-ins and classes-in-solidarity continued, ranging from “Sustainable Agriculture” (Patrick Archie, Michael Peñuelas, and Maria Deloso) to “Antigone and Social Dissent” (Rush Rehm of Classics).

Administrative Thumbs-up
Health officials from the Vaden Health Center also visited the encampment. They expressed concern for the students’ safety and well-being, and proceeded to hand out chap stick. “How did they know this is exactly what I needed?” organizer Yari Greaney exclaimed. The camp's neat rows of tents and sleeping bags also passed a Fire Marshal’s inspection, which deemed the camp ship-shape.

Administrative Grousing
During the afternoon, the protesters received a paper warning from the University, demanding that they decamp and move to White Plaza or disperse. The camp leaders distributed the letter to participants so all would be aware of the Administration’s action.
 
That night, at a camp-wide meeting, the response was announced: “We will not be moving to White Plaza.”
 
Josh Lappen, a core organizer, explained the group’s decision, highlighting two key reasons:

1. The administrators want to clear the site so they do not have to listen to our voices. We will not be silenced so easily.
2. Other communities on campus, including the Black community, are organizing events on White Plaza on Wednesday and Friday, and we do not wish to occupy a space that they have already elected to make their own. It would be an unwelcome and inappropriate intrusion.

 
“We are staying!” he declared, to general acclamation.

The Camp at Night
A final “anti-oppression training” closed the evening, where dozens of students took part in an exercise of historical introspection of the environmental movement. Facilitated by Charlie and Shane, the session examined how minority communities and social justice issues have often been marginalized by mainstream environmental organizations—and importantly, how we can do better to include those perspectives.

The camp settled in for a second night. While the group had been warned by Greaney that detention and arrest remained a possibility and how to prepare, the atmosphere remained buoyant. The sign at the corner of the quad seemed to capture the moment best: “Temperatures are rising … so are we.”

It’s been a long day of protest, and folks are getting settled into the encampment. Though it's nearly midnight, people are still pitching tents, moving sleeping bags and mattresses, and plugging in extension cords.
 
One enterprising student has set up a swinging hammock between two columns. Nearby lamp posts and the arcade's hanging bulbs provide soft yellow lighting overhead. People are gathered in small clusters, chatting softly.

It doesn’t feel different than any dorm lounge on a Monday night, except this space is filled with a veritable yard sale of sleeping bags, fabrics, tents, and duffle bags—and a much stronger sense of purpose. In addition to general buzz about the protest, I’ve also heard two active debates on divestment.

One conversation centered on how the university's endowment might regularly be used, while a second discussed renewables vs. coal/gas/oil, and whether the problem is inherently fossil fuels or simply their carbon emissions. Intelligent points were made on all sides—it is Stanford, after all—and even in the midst of great emotional stakes, people are determined to have a well-reasoned, science-based argument. It’s how we are trained.

I'm currently perched beneath the poster displaying the “community agreements” for this encampment. The social justice co-ops are certainly having their day; the document features principles such as “cultivating a culture of respect,” “maintaining a calm, quiet atmosphere when appropriate,” and “promoting a spirit of cooperation.” Idealistic perhaps, but setting the tone is crucial with such a large mobilization of human beings.

This is only the first night, and I’m sure the orderliness and clean lines will be tested in the days ahead—but for now, this is a camp charged with camaraderie and civility.
 
“Should I do homework? Or watch an episode of Friends?” a student muses out loud. "I think I’ll watch Friends.” Protest site, certainly, but still Stanford.

"When we're there circling the building, and the rally comes around the corner, cheering and shouting—it felt so big and so powerful. All I can think then is that we are winning, we are winning.

After that, once we set up, I just felt happy. We’ve been planning logistics for so many weeks for this. And then we are here!”

Students gathered in the Main Quad, and shortly before 1 PM, converged upon the President’s office for the sit-in. Upon finding the front and back doors barred, with security guards hovering on both sides, the students immediately shifted tactics.
 
They read the Declaration of Intent, addressed to the administration and Board of Trustees, then linked hands to encircle the building. They sang a chorus of songs, highlighting the urgent need to combat climate change and telegraphing their determination in pushing their University to change.

At this time, a large column of demonstrators from a parallel rally in White Plaza arrived on site. ASSU student executives gave speeches reiterating that the elected representatives of all undergraduate students and all graduate students on campus had previously passed resolutions calling for divestment, and accused the Stanford University administration of stonewalling. Andrea Martinez gave a moving speech linking climate injustice in her birth country of Colombia with similar environment injustice in Oakland.
 
Then the students set up an encampment on the bricks of the Main Quad, along the front arcade, and in the rear grove behind the President’s office.
 
Read the protesters' latest Press Release and the Live Stream of images from the encampment. Several media outlets, including The San Francisco Chronicle and The Guardian newspaper; television channels ABC 7, KRON 4 and NBC Bay Area; and the Stanford Daily have already begun coverage of the round-the-clock protest.

Faculty teach-ins and other protest activities will begin in the morning. After a strong start, the Fossil Fuel Divestment movement has hunkered down for an indefinite battle.


ADDENDUM: Also see the Day 1 Storify for additional reporting. Coincidentally, The Guardian also reported a story this morning entitled "Gates Foundation would be $1.9bn better off if it had divested from fossil fuels" In short, numerous philanthropies that had invested their endowments in oil and gas firms would have larger endowments had they divested from those types of companies in the past three years. Stanford could take a page from this analysis as well.

Today's action has been a long time coming. Three years of negotiations with the Stanford administration have not yielded the results urgently demanded by the planet's climate. As Stanford students, faculty and alumni, there is a high standard of ethical decision-making we expect of ourselves and from our University.

Stay tuned to this space. We will post a summary of the day's events, reflections from participants (on the inside and outside of the sit-in), and a daily selection of photos.