Summary: Day 1 (November 16)

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.