Alum, Student Activists Celebrate Cuts in PNC's Financing of Mountaintop Mining

Haverford College alumni and students are getting a share of the credit for a decision by PNC Bank to significantly cut its financing of coal companies that practice mountaintop-removal mining.

Over the last five years, the Philadelphia-based Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) has protested the bank's policy, and several Haverford alums and students have played key roles. When PNC released a policy change earlier this week, EQAT cheered what it is claiming as a major victory. The Fords involved were no less excited.

“It's amazing to know that what started out as just a tiny group of interested Quakers could end up changing the policy of the seventh largest bank in the U.S.,” says Katie Rowlett '16, a chemistry major from Greensboro, N.C., who has been involved with EQAT for nearly two years.

The Haverford connections to EQAT run deep. Jonathan Snipes '82 was one of the founders of the group. More recently, a determined group of Fords have joined the effort. Besides Rowlett, others include Samantha Shain '14, Christina Tavernelli '13, Benjamin Safran '13, and Laura Eckstein '16.

Shain, who recently joined EQAT's board of directors, has been a lead trainer for a number of actions.“We did it! Faithful, courageous, sustained, non-violent direct action works!” she says. â€œIt works in big and small ways, changing the decisions of our targets as well as our own lives.”

At Haverford, Shain majored in growth and structure of cities and now is a local food operations fellow at the nonprofit Common Market Philadelphia. Her activism, nurtured during college, has changed her for the better, she says.

“Taking risks together with these Friends has empowered me to be a more thoughtful, faithful woman,” she says. â€œI'm proud of all that we've accomplished and know that there is still work to be done to ensure a just and sustainable economy in Appalachia.”

Rowlett was on the planning team for the Feb. 9 EQAT Loves Mountains, a Valentine's Day-themed action that drew protestors from along the East Coast to PNC's main branch in Philadelphia. It was the last action before the bank released on Monday its Corporate Responsibility Report that noted the policy change. The report says the move was“driven by environmental and health concerns, as well as our risk appetite.”

“Haverford grads and students can claim a lot of this victory,” says Ingrid Lakey, another of the founders of EQAT and a board member.“This is what a Quaker legacy can look like in action. These are students who … are finding ways to be powerful in a broken world.”

Besides participating in protests, Haverford students helped communicate the win to media on Monday and have helped build the group's social media presence, Lakey says.

Walter Sullivan, director of Quaker Affairs at Haverford and a board member of EQAT, has helped feed many of these Fords' interest in the environment. He has taken students to West Virginia to witness the harsh impact of dynamiting peaks in Appalachia to more efficiently extract coal. The process, opponents have argued, can pollute waterways and destroy mountains.

“It's clear that our campaign brought this to [PNC's] attention, helping the corporation see the wisdom of the action taken this week,” he says.“I really do believe the connections we've made in the Tri-Co … have really brought essential life and energy to the campaign.”

For many of the students, Sullivan says, the issue of mountaintop mining resonates.“Because climate change is a central, perhaps the central, issue of this generation, they care,” he says.

EQAT's sustained action against a specific target, Sullivan says, has allowed Haverford alums and students to learn the value of strategic planning and action toward social change.“It's learning by doing,” he says.

Of course, the successful outcome has proven a significant shot in the arm for the young activists.

“It felt very affirming,” says Safran, who graduated as a music major with a double minor in growth and structure of cities and education and now is a graduate student in music composition at Temple University.“If we could get PNC to stop financing mountaintop removal, then certainly current Haverford students should be able to achieve divestment from fossil fuels, or whatever is feeling important to the student body today.”

-Lini S. Kadaba