Activists with the Environmental Resource Center, Olympia Rising Tide, the Cascade Climate Network and Washpirg targeted Bank of America.

The students built and hit a piñata in the shape of a Bank of America ATM. As the fake ATM fell apart, chocolate shaped like coal, as well as “Credit cards” (baring information on Bank of America) fell out. With the piñata, conversations with passersby, creative signs and literature, organizers helped to inform students and staff that the school’s money is being used to fund environmentally and socially destructive coal companies. A petition to change Evergreen’s bank was circulated, and pressure against Bank of America on campus has grown.

Students at the Evergreen State College are seeking to switch the school’s bank from Bank of America to a local credit union. Bank of America is being targeted by social and environmental justice groups throughout the country for their investments in the coal industry. “Our tuition money is used to support coal companies that contribute heavily to US carbon emissions, practice Mountaintop Removal and exploit the land and people in the Black Mesa region”, said Maya Face. Coal is responsible for 40% of annual US greenhouse gases, while power plants are a leading cause of asthma and lung cancer, responsible for over 24,000 deaths annually.