The University of Washington's feisty divestment movement looks like it’s finally going to get a formal meeting with university leadership. This week, the Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW) passed a resolution to divest the school's $2.3 billion endowment from coal.

This is a big deal. If the UW were to divest from coal, it would be joining 15 other universities in the United States that have made similar commitments to phasing out one type of fossil fuel investment or another. The ASUW estimates that would also mean shifting gears for 19 percent of the UW's total endowment.

Two years ago, UW associate treasurer Ann Sarna explained that the university would only take action if the activists could prove a consensus among the student body about the issue. Divesters sent UW president Michael Young 15 pounds of Pennsylvanian coal this past Christmas to drive the point home, but the activists still lacked consensus proof.

Now that the ASUW has joined the university's Graduate and Professional Student Senate in passing twin divestment resolutions, Divest UW has won a meeting with the Board of Regents within the next week.

"It was a long and tedious process, arguably longer and more tedious than it should have been," student organizer Sarra Tekola said. "With the support of the graduate students in the senate ... they can't say that we don’t have the support of the students."

There’s now strong precedent for weaning universities' investment portfolios off coal. Last year, a student-led movement at Stanford University succeeded in getting the school to ditch its coal investments, bringing major attention to the cause. And earlier this week, 300 Stanford professors urged the school to go further and divest from the rest of its ownership in fossil fuel companies.

UW leadership didn’t respond to requests for comment, but we’ll be staying on top of how the meeting goes.