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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see fti</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see lexecon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">advocates for fossil fuel divestment have spent the past several years pressuring universities and pension boards to sell their investments in energy companies in order to take a symbolic stance against carbon-based fuels and climate change.&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></div><div>
</div><div>The costs of divestment do not occur in a vacuum. When a university or pension fund takes that action, the fund must reduce either current or future spending or payouts, or find another source of cash to offset the costs.&nbsp; In other words, divestment effectively transfers wealth to the financial sector, and leaves the costs to be borne by students, faculty, or pensioners.</div><div>
</div><div>How big are those costs?</div><div>
</div><div>My colleagues and I at Compass Lexecon, one of the world’s leading economic consulting firms, set out to answer this question, and found that these costs are substantial.&nbsp; For a typical large university endowment,<b> our team calculated that, absent an increase in tuition or some other source of cash to fill the gap, the immediate and ongoing costs of divestment would require reduced endowment spending of approximately six to 15 percent.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Reduced endowment spending could result in cuts to faculty research, increases in class sizes, or reductions in student services.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Alternatively, institutional spending could be maintained at current levels by hiking tuition</b>.&nbsp; Specifically, we found that a typical large university could offset the costs of fossil fuel divestment by raising tuition (or reducing existing scholarships) by approximately $123 to $385 annually per person at a public university or $1,043 to $3,265 annually at a private university.&nbsp; The actual figures would, of course, depend on the extent of the university’s fossil fuel investments and its reliance on endowment spending.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>In a similar fashion, pensioners could suffer substantial costs if their pension funds divested</b>. I estimate that the costs triggered by divestment would equate to a reduction of about five to seven percent in the monthly benefits that can be paid to typical pensioner, depending on the extent of the pension fund’s fossil fuel assets, unless these costs were somehow offset by additional contributions to the pension fund.</div><div>
</div><div>But at a time when many public pension funds in the U.S. are already severely underfunded, the additional costs of divestment would also add to the financial and political distress surrounding them.</div><div>
</div><div>These very significant costs are, at least in part, the reason why even colleges and other institutions that have announced intentions to divest have limited their actions to some form of partial divestment, attempting to placate divestment activists while minimizing the proportion of the fund actually pledged to remain fossil-free.&nbsp;<b> Many universities, such as Harvard, Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT), and New York University, have declined to divest from fossil fuels at all.</b></div><div>
</div><div>During upcoming weeks divestment activists will be staging an array of events to try to push the nostrum forward. What should be done about climate change is an important issue that deserves our careful attention, and the full range of options should be considered.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>But decisions should be based on facts, not political posturing.&nbsp;</b> Divestment simply transfers ownership of existing securities from divesting institutions to new investors, with no direct effect on the operations of the companies involv</span>ed.</div><div>
</div><div>There is a direct and costly effect, however, on students, faculty, pensioners and taxpayers.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Editor's note: The work highlighted in this article was commissioned by the <b>Independent Petroleum Association of America.</b> Read the full report on DivestmentFacts.com.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Dr. Hendrik Bessembinder is a Professor of Finance, and holds the Francis J. and Mary B. Labriola Endowed Chair, at the W.P. Carey School of Business of Arizona State University. He is also an Affiliate Professor in Business Economics and Finance at the Foster School of Business of the University of Washington and a Senior Consultant with Compass Lexecon</div></div><div><div class="pre-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1280px; overflow: hidden; background-color: rgb(246, 248, 250);"><section name="1" class="item item-bio" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 24px auto 12px; padding: 32px; border: 1px solid rgb(206, 223, 239); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); max-width: 1232px;"><header class="heading" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 class="title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Hendrik Bessembinder</font></span></h1></header><div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Hendrik Bessembinder is a Professor of Finance, and holds the Francis J. and Mary B. Labriola Endowed Chair, at the W.P. Carey School of Business of Arizona State University. He is also an Affiliate Professor in Business Economics and Finance at the Foster School of Business of the University of Washington and a Senior Consultant with Compass Lexecon</font></div></section></div><div class="page-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1280px; background-color: rgb(246, 248, 250);"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; position: relative; width: 1280px;"><main class="main-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin-left: 24px; width: calc(100% - 360px);"><section class="collection collection-article-list" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 24px; border: 1px solid rgb(206, 223, 239); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="content article-list" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both;"><article class="article" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative;"><div class="info" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden;"><header class="info-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="eyebrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 6px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/politics" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: background 0s ease 0s, all 0.25s ease 0s, all 0s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">POLITICS</a></span>&nbsp;<span class="time" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;">April 29, 2017</span></font></div></div><h4 class="title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/who-pays-the-price-for-fossil-fuel-divestment-students-pensioners-and-you" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: background 0s ease 0s, all 0.25s ease 0s, all 0s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Who pays the price for fossil fuel divestment? Students, pensioners -- and you</font></a></h4></header><div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="dek" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 21px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/who-pays-the-price-for-fossil-fuel-divestment-students-pensioners-and-you" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: background 0s ease 0s, all 0.25s ease 0s, all 0s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Advocates for fossil fuel divestment have spent the past several years pressuring universities and pension boards to sell their investments in energy companies in order to take a symbolic stance against carbon-based fuels and climate change.</font></a></p></div></div></article></div></section></main></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fossil Fuel Divestment and Its Potential Impacts On

Students, Faculty and Other University and Pension Stakeholders</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Hendrik Bessembinder*

<b>Arizona State University</b>, University of Washington, and<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Compass Lexecon

</span>April 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Abstract&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fossil fuel divestment involves the sale by universities, pension funds, or other institutions, of

financial securities issued by companies engaged in fossil-fuel related activities. Divestment can

be seen as a symbolic expression of an institution’s views on fossil energy-related environmental

issues. Well-governed institutions will consider the costs of such an expressive statement, as well

as who will bear those costs. Unlike the potential effects of a consumer boycott, which would

presumably involve reduced consumption of energy derived from fossil fuels or reduced

consumption of goods or services that require fossil fuel energy for their production, divestment

has no direct effect on emissions of greenhouse gases, because divestment only leads to changes

in the ownership of financial securities. However, divestment does involve real costs in terms of

reduced diversification, ongoing compliance costs, and transaction costs. These costs are not just

entries in accounting ledgers, but must be borne by the stakeholders of divesting institutions,

potentially including students, faculty and staff, and pensioners. Further, these costs involve

transfers of wealth from divesting institutions to financial-sector firms. I present a framework for

assessing such costs. Based on illustrative assumptions calibrated to actual data, I calculate that

the costs of divestment are equivalent to annual tuition increases (or equivalent reductions in

tuition scholarships) of approximately $123 to $385 at a representative public university or

$1,043 to $3,265 at a representative private university. Under similar assumptions, divestment

equates to a reduction in monthly pension benefits of approximately five to seven percent for a

typical pensioner.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In practice, it is extremely difficult for even financial market professionals to consistently predict

which securities will rise or fall by unusual amounts in the future.68 This reflects the fact that securities

markets are extremely competitive. In a competitive security market, predictions that a certain group of

securities will have abnormal high or low future returns have roughly a fifty percent chance of being

correct. The potential future gains or losses from divestment that occur because the divested securities

subsequently rise or fall in price are, quite literally, speculative. In contrast, the existence of transaction

costs, compliance costs, and diversification costs attributable to divestment are guaranteed.

All of this is not to say that no one benefits from divestment. As discussed above, divestment

involves the payment of transaction costs as securities are sold and then replaced. Middlemen who

effectively make markets in these securities – typically large banks or specialized investment and trading

firms – capture these costs as their own revenues.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Further, the increased ongoing compliance costs paid

by university endowments and pension funds that divest are realized as revenues by those who manage

“fossil free” portfolios. These managers benefit from divestment, and unsurprisingly, many of them have

been at the forefront of divestment advocacy. In a nutshell, divestment transfers wealth from university

and pension fund claimants, including faculty, students, and retirees, to the financial sector.

Conclusion

The field of economics studies how firms and markets allocate resources. The profit motive

incents firms to deliver those goods and services that consumers value highly enough to more than cover

the costs involved. That is, fossil fuel companies deliver energy sourced from hydrocarbons because their

customers demand it, and are willing to pay more than the costs involved in their production.

Unlike a potential boycott, which would require individuals and companies to reduce their

consumption of energy sourced from fossil fuels or goods that rely on such, divestment does not change

the essential economics involved in fossil fuel production. Portfolio divestment changes who owns a

portion of the securities issued by fossil fuel firms, as each divested financial asset is purchased by

another investor, but has no direct effect on demand for energy produced from fossil fuel, and no

demonstrable effect on the targeted companies. Since divestment does not directly affect either demand

for energy provided from fossil fuels or the cost of delivering such energy, divestment is unlikely to alter

the volume of emissions derived from fossil fuels that enters the atmosphere.

However, divestment transfers wealth from endowments or pension funds that divest to financial

sector firms, in the form of transactions costs and ongoing compliance costs. The loss of endowment or

pension fund value due to divestment is not simply an entry in an accounting ledger. These costs must

ultimately be borne by endowment and pension fund stakeholders, potentially including students in the

form of higher tuition or lower scholarships, faculty and staff in terms of higher workload or lower

compensation, and pensioners in terms of reduced monthly benefits.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">off bs</font></div><div><a href="https://divestmentfacts.com/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://divestmentfacts.com/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ipaa energy educ ctr</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This site, brought to you by the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ipaa.org/press-releases/americas-independent-oil-natural-gas-producers-file-lawsuit-against-interior-department-over-final-hydraulic-fracturing-rule/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Independent Petroleum Association of America</a>&nbsp;(IPAA), is part of a broader outreach campaign dedicated to educating the public and institutions alike on the facts about divestment.</font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; width: 449.25px; border-top: 3px solid rgb(189, 208, 242); border-bottom: 3px solid rgb(189, 208, 242); padding: 15px 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">“Every bit of economic and quantitative evidence available to us today shows that the only entities punished under a fossil-fuel divestment regime are the schools actually doing the divesting—with virtually no discernible impact on the targeted companies.”<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></font><small style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: right; float: right;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">Professor<b> Fischel,&nbsp;</b></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>University of Chicago Law</b> School</span></font></small></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Universities and experts across the country agree that the costs associated with divestment are substantial, resulting in the displacement of billions annually from school endowments, hundreds of millions in new compliance and management fees, and new threats to the financial well-being of institutions and future generations of students – all while having no tangible impact on the companies targeted by this campaign.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Whether through its successful Oil & Gas Investment Symposium events, NAPE summits and expos, or various other programs, IPAA is proud to serve as a bridge that connects its members to the capital markets and investment communities. Check out&nbsp;<a title="The Facts" href="http://divestmentfacts.com/the-facts/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">the facts</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://divestmentfacts.com/category/what-theyre-saying/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">What They’re Saying</a>&nbsp;pages and make sure to follow DivestmentFacts.com on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Divestment-Facts/441101512732722" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Facebook</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/@DivestmentFacts" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Twitter</a>&nbsp;to learn more.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All quotes featured by professors and school leaders on this website are public statements made by individuals and are not necessarily representative of the institution of which they are associated. Said schools and universities are also not affiliated with IPAA or&nbsp;<a href="http://divestmentfacts.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">DivestmentFacts.com</a>.</font></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://divestmentfacts.com/category/what-theyre-saying/" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" transparent="transparent" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What They’re Saying</font></a></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">some pretty old?</font></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">fter a thoughtful and deliberative review, nearly every institution that considered and ultimately rejected the divestment argument did so for a number of reasons, ranging from financial considerations, to academic freedom, all the way down to the avoidance of being hypocritical, since every one of the schools targeted continues to be users of fossil fuels. Below is what current and former representatives of these institutions are saying in rejecting the divestment campaign.</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);" /><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What They’re Saying: Ivy League Community Says No to Divestment</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Students, alumni, and university leaders across the Ivy League have pointed out the high costs and empty impacts divestment could have on college campuses. Here’s what some stakeholders are saying about members of the Ivy League and their continued rejection of divestment:</font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><li style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Christopher Eisengruber, President of Princeton University</strong>: “No,” said Eisgruber, when asked if the University has any future plans for divestment. “The answer is right now, we do not have any such plans…We make a difference in the world through our teaching and research and the quality of that teaching and research, rather than by taking a symbolic stance with our endowment.” (<a href="https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2020/02/eisgruber-fields-title-ix-divestment-questions-at-cpuc-meeting" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">February 2020</a>)</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Lawrence Bacow, President of Harvard University</strong>: “Amid our larger academic and institutional efforts, debate over investment policy—including demands to divest from the fossil fuel industry—will no doubt continue at Harvard and beyond. This debate is healthy. And while I, like my predecessors, believe that engaging with industry to confront the challenge of climate change is ultimately a sounder and more effective approach for our university, I respect the views of those who think otherwise. We may differ on means. But I believe we seek the same ends—a decarbonized future in which life on Earth can flourish for ages to come.” (<a href="https://harvardmagazine.com/2019/09/climate-change" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">September-October 2019</a>)</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Official Statement from Cornell University</strong>: “The principal purpose of the Cornell endowment is to provide income for the advancement of the educational and mission-related objectives to which the university is dedicated, and the first responsibility of the Board of Trustees is to ensure that the funds are managed properly and used for the educational and programmatic purposes for which they were donated.” (<a href="https://news.cornell.edu/preview-link/node/317986/8f0b3965-1ded-4111-a2c9-ed27a35693cd" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">February 2020</a>)</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">John P. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Holdren,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"> Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard, Fmr. Obama Science Advisor</span></strong><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">: “It’s not only not the best form of action, it’s a counterproductive form of action. It’s counterproductive because it would lead many Harvard faculty and students to imagine they’d struck an effective blow against climate change—and would likely reduce their focus on more productive measures—when it would actually be a misdirected blow. Just advocating for it is distracting people from measures that would actually be effective.” (</span><a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/4/21/harvard-faculty-disagree-divestment/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">April 2020</a><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">)</span></font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">David Swensen, Chief Investment Officer at Yale</strong>: “Yale’s managers make critical decisions about what investments are selected for Yale’s portfolio and what issue are raised with company management teams. Given the nature of Yale’s investment strategy, direct dialogue with its managers is the most effective means of addressing climate change risk in the portfolio.” (<a href="https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1kftwb98pdn9q/Yale-Activists-Want-Divestment-David-Swensen-Isn-t-Budging" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">February 2020</a>)</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">David Swensen, Chief Investment Officer at Yale</strong>: “If we stopped producing fossil fuels today we would all die. We wouldn’t have food. We wouldn’t have transportation. We wouldn’t have heat. We wouldn’t have air conditioning. We wouldn’t have clothes…It’s very nice to protest the fact that we have fossil fuel producers in the portfolio, but the real problem is the consumption, and everyone of us…is a consumer.” (<a href="https://fortune.com/2019/11/26/against-oil-divestment-ceo-daily/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">November 2019</a>)</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dustin Tingley, Professor of Government at Harvard</strong>: “Today, I will vote no to divestment, but yes to investment in the research, teaching, and learning around climate change. Yes to investment by Harvard in this vital space that has clearly struck a nerve among our students, staff, and faculty.” (<a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/4/21/harvard-faculty-disagree-divestment/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">April 2020</a>)</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">Donald Opatrny, Chair of the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cornell </span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">University Board of Trustees</span></strong><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">: “The university’s endowment must not be regarded primarily as an instrument of political or social power; its principal purpose is to provide income for the advancement of the university’s educational objectives.” (</span><a href="https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/02/trustees-approve-new-standard-consider-divestment" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">February 2016</a><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">)</span></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">Christina Paxson, President of</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Brown University</span></strong><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">: In an interview for The Brown Daily Herald, Paxson commented that she would stand with her prior position: “Right or wrong, (divestment) is just not effective. I don’t see how it does any good. In some ways, if people think that that’s all they need to do, and that it lets them off the hook … that’s a really easy way out of doing the hard work of actually making real change.” (</span><a href="https://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/12/06/movement-fossil-fuel-divestment-quiet-campus/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">December 2019</a><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">).</span></font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">Stephen Pacala, Frederick D. Petrie Professor in </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ecology </span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University:</span></strong><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">&nbsp;In an article for the Daily Princetonian, Pacala commented that the ethical significance of removing financial backing is diluted by the fact that the campus and its individuals will continue to rely on fossil fuels. (</span><a href="https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2020/02/divestment-duels-stephen-pacala" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">February 2020</a><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">)</span></font></li></ul><p style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These voices have a right to be concerned about the unintended and direct consequences that fossil fuel divestment would have on their college campuses. Leaders in the Ivy League should be focused on solutions, not costly empty gesture divestment.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Michigan President Dr. Mark Schlissel</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fossil fuels enable us to operate the university, to conduct research and to provide patient care.&nbsp;. I do not believe that a persuasive argument has been made that divestment by the U-M will speed up the necessary transition from coal to renewable or less polluting sources of energy.&nbsp;For these reasons, I do not think that consideration of divestment from fossil fuels is the right step. We made a commitment to our donors to use income generated from the endowment to support our mission for today and for future generations –academic and research programs, student support, and life-saving patient care.&nbsp;The endowment should not be used to further other causes, however noble.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">December 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://president.umich.edu/news-communications/on-the-agenda/addressing-climate-change-as-a-powerful-community/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">MIT </span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">President L. Rafael Reif</span></font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In our judgment, the deliberate public act of divestment would entangle MIT in a movement whose core tactic is large-scale public shaming…This would retard rather than encourage the <b>open collaboration </b>and ability to hear new ideas that are central to our research relationships, central to our ability to help government and business think creatively together, and central to our ability to convene and inform the thinking of those with opposing views.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">October 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://tech.mit.edu/V135/N27/climate.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Harvard University President Drew Faust</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I don’t think that divestment is an appropriate tool, because I don’t think the endowment should be used for exerting political pressure. It is meant to fund the wide range of activities that the University undertakes. As we said before, 35 percent of our operating budget comes from the endowment. That is why people gave their funds to create the endowment. It should not be used as a weapon to exert pressure on one group or another.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There are many dangers and it has little effective outcome. What would it mean if we sold our investments? Very little, because there are plenty of other people who will invest in those firms.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">September 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/09/qa-with-harvard-president-drew-faust/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Harvard University President Drew Faust</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The endowment is a resource, not an instrument to impel social or political change. …I also find a troubling inconsistency in the notion that, as an investor, we should boycott a whole class of companies at the same time that, as individuals and as a community, we are extensively relying on those companies’ products and services for so much of what we do every day.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Given our pervasive dependence on these companies for the energy to heat and light our buildings, to fuel our transportation, and to run our computers and appliances, it is hard for me to reconcile that reliance with a refusal to countenance any relationship with these companies through our investments.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">October 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.harvard.edu/president/fossil-fuels" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Columbia University Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The merits of the case are not clearly on one side, nor are we sure that Columbia’s divestment would send a signal more powerful than engagement. It seems unlikely to us that divestment from fossil fuel would ‘revoke a social license’ when we continue to use fossil fuels day after day in every aspect of our lives.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">February 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://finance.columbia.edu/files/gateway/content/evp/Response%20to%20Barnard%20Columbia%20Divest%20Proposal%20FINAL.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cornell University </span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">President David J. Skorton</span></font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The publicly-traded energy companies in our portfolio, for example, collectively have large research and development budgets committed to alternative energy strategies. The top five energy companies have more than $20 billion committed to alternative and sustainable energy research and development.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because of the endowment income’s importance to our operating budget, we invest in asset classes that we believe will earn returns robust enough to keep up with both our annual withdrawals and with inflation. Energy is expected to be one of highest returning asset classes going forward and is a good hedge against inflation.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://cornellsun.com/blog/2013/04/15/skorton-divestment-a-complicated-issue-for-universities/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brown University President Christina Paxson</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a university, Brown has a responsibility to grapple with the world’s problems in all their complexity. As I and others considered the matter, it became apparent that the symbolic statement of divestiture would not elucidate the complex scientific and policy issues surrounding coal and climate change and, for this reason, it would run counter to Brown’s mission of communicating knowledge.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">October 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://brown.edu/about/administration/president/2013-10-27-coal-divestment-update" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">University of California, Berkeley Board of Regents Task Force on Sustainable Investment</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The majority of the Task Force concluded that divestment in and of itself would not meaningfully impact climate change. In addition, the majority of Task Force members believe that the cumulative benefit from the University’s divestment from fossil fuels would not outweigh the total costs incurred from the divestment of fossil fuels from the University’s $91 billion investment portfolio.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">September 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/sept14/i1.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Georgetown University Committee on Investments and Social Responsibility</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After lengthy discussion, CISR concurred with the need to act in light of these concerns, but did not support the proposal for full divestment submitted by Georgetown University Fossil Free.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">January 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thehoya.com/cisr-rejects-fossil-free-plan-offers-alternative/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New York University (NYU) Executive Vice President for Finance and IT Martin Dorph</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In order to eliminate the $139 million in fossil fuel investments, NYU would have to liquidate relationships with 39 funds that together account for 38% of the endowment, or $1.3 billion. The Working Group concluded this was not financially prudent.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">March 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/03/8564868/nyu-working-group-opposes-fossil-fuel-divestment" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We’re sitting in a room that’s heated and lighted, and when we drive to where we go, we use fossil fuels, it seems to me that it would seem to be hypocritical to say, ‘we’re going to divest from the companies we rely on for the energy, what we need to do business.’ So I think what we need is a gradual but more determined effort to make our use of energy sustainable.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">February 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://ndsmcobserver.com/2015/02/jenkins-addresses-commencement-crossroads-town-hall-meeting/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Duke University Duke Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We are not persuaded that divestment is an effective strategy to hasten the processes by which we will become less dependent on fossil fuels in the near term, and because of our concern that divestment could polarize discussions surrounding strategies that could accelerate development and use of non-fossil fuel energy, we do not support the divestment option.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">January 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="https://today.duke.edu/2015/01/acirfossil" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Middlebury College </span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">President Ronald Liebowitz</span></font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At this time, too many of these questions either raise serious concerns or remain unanswered for the board to support divestment. Given its fiduciary responsibilities, the board cannot look past the lack of proven alternative investment models, the difficulty and material cost of withdrawing from a complex portfolio of investments, and the uncertainties and risks that divestment would create. Instead, we will focus on the positive differences Middlebury can make through its actions, in the best tradition of our institution.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">August</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> 2013</span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"> -&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/archive/524638/node/459563" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Princeton University President Emeritus William G. Bowen</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Taking an institutional stand on political issues of many kinds threatens the primary educational mission of the university, which is to be avowedly open to arguments of every kind and to avoid giving priority to partisan or other political viewpoints.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These are times when educational institutions need to work harder, in my view, to improve educational outcomes, especially for less-privileged students. …Well-intentioned but poorly conceived efforts to compel colleges and universities to fight extramural battles of all kinds can impair efforts to work harder on issues of great social as well as educational consequence that are at the core of the basic educational mission of higher education.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">March 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/demanding-universities-to-divest-is-often-bad-policy/2015/03/27/1382fbe4-d401-11e4-ab77-9646eea6a4c7_story.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tufts University President Tony Monaco</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Tufts Divestment Working Group asked the university’s Investment Office to conduct a rigorous analysis of what would happen to our endowment if we divested from fossil fuel companies. Even the most conservative model showed that the endowment would experience a significant loss of return—$75 million in market value over the next five years—in large part because of our investments in commingled funds.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To put the projected impact in perspective, $75 million would provide endowment income to fund scholarships for 100 undergraduates or annual stipends for 125 Ph.D. students, or fund the entire 2012 state appropriation for the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">February 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://president.tufts.edu/2014/02/statement-on-divestment-from-fossil-fuel-companies/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Davidson College President Carol Quillen</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Besides being a questionable tool for regulatory and social change in this instance, divestment would impede the Committee’s mission and we are not in a position to put that priority in jeopardy.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Divestiture by Davidson would have no economic influence over the energy companies and no impact on global energy demand. Moreover, we question the integrity of making a symbolic gesture while continuing to power our campus with energy produced from fossil fuels.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">March 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://davidsonnews.net/blog/2014/03/01/college-trustees-reject-divestment-referendum/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American University Board of Trustees Chair Jeffrey A. Sine</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since the conditions for board’s primary fiduciary responsibilities cannot be satisfied, the Finance and Investment Committee concluded that divestment is not an option the board can take to express a position on climate change.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">November 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/21/american-u-latest-reject-fossil-fuel-divestment-de/?page=all" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pomona College College President David W. Oxtoby</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Far from being a minimal cost, Cambridge’s projections show that divestment would in all likelihood result in a total decrease in the endowment’s performance over a 10-year period of about $485 million. This loss of growth in the total endowment, caused mainly by the need to withdraw from the best actively managed commingled funds, would result in an estimated $6.6 million loss in annual spendable income for such things as financial aid, faculty and staff salaries and program support.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It also remains unclear that divestment would have anything more than a symbolic impact in fighting climate change. …Although symbolism does matter, it is hard to make the case that it would be worth the significant cost to future Pomona students.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">September 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pomona.edu/news/2013/09/files/oxtoby-divestment-letter.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">CalSTRS</span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"> Chief Investment Officer Chris Ailman</span></font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I’ve been involved in five divestments for our fund. All five of them we’ve lost money, and all five of them have not brought about social change.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">June </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">2015</span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"> -&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2015/cjc0603sm.html" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Tennessee Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Charles Peccolo</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last year, 90 percent of the endowment’s payout went to supportive scholarships, instruction, and research. Eliminating a broad segment of the market from investment could hinder future funding of these endeavors.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">January 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://utdailybeacon.com/news/2014/jan/23/ut-rejects-proposal-fossil-fuel-divestment/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bryn Mawr College Board of Trustees Investment Policy Subcommittee Chair Cheryl R. Holland</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While divestment would hurt the College financially, we don’t believe it would have any impact on the companies targeted by your proposal. …We also believe that divestment will not accomplish the larger and central goal of reducing the use of fossil fuels.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To divest of the College’s direct private investments in oil and gas partnerships within the next five years would force the College to take, at minimum, an estimated $10 million loss on these investments. …In fact, divesting from companies based solely on the amount of fossil fuel reserves they own ignores the extent to which they are investing in alternative energy sources and how environmentally friendly their practices are or could be in the future.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">August 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://news.brynmawr.edu/files/2013/08/August_27_2013BMCDivest-1.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of North Carolina UNC Management Company President Jon King</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate change is a serious issue and we take it seriously. We want to make a positive contribution, we just don’t think divestment is the optimal way to go.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">February 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2015/02/13/unc-keep-fossil-fuel-holdings-researches-renewables/23352061/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bowdoin College President Clayton Rose</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I’ve done a lot of reading about where we come from and what our policies are as well as what other schools have done, and I have read or heard nothing to change my view that we should not divest.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">July 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://bowdoinorient.com/article/10313" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bates College President Clayton Spencer</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To guarantee divestment from these 200 public companies, our investment advisers estimate that between a third and a half of the entire endowment would need to be liquidated and replaced with separately managed accounts. Were we to guarantee a fossil fuel free endowment more broadly than the 200 companies, greater than half of the endowment would need to be liquidated.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In either scenario, the transition would result in significant transaction costs, a long-term decrease in the endowment’s performance, an increase in the endowment’s risk profile, and thus a loss in annual operating income for the college. Such a reduction in resources would affect critical college priorities, including financial aid, faculty and staff salaries, and support for academic programs. In short, divestment would potentially threaten core aspects of the college’s mission.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">January 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bates.edu/president/2014/01/21/statement-on-climate-change-and-divestment/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bowdoin College Former President Barry Mills</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is entirely inappropriate for us to say that our endowment should be the mechanism by which we choose winners and losers on political and social and moral movements.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://bowdoinorient.com/article/9326" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tulane University President Emeritus Scott Cowen</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In our view, the divestiture of fossil fuel companies in our endowment will not have any significant impact on mitigating global warming, especially in comparison to more meaningful actions that can be taken to address the myriad causes of climate change…Moreover, many fossil fuel companies are currently investing in alternative energy sources as a means to mitigate harm to the environment.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rather than divestment, our strategy, consistent with the university’s mission, is to continue to invest in ideas and programs that offer the promise of making a significant and real difference.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.divesttulane.org/uploads/2/4/6/6/24661412/reponse_from_president_cowen_and_the_board_of_tulane_university.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Colby College President Emeritus William Adams</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I understand the strong feelings the students have about the risks of global warming. I have them too. What’s not clear is how this divestment movement will affect the issue of global warming.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">June 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.centralmaine.com/2013/06/01/colby-college-wont-divest-fossil-fuel-holdings/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of East Anglia Registrar & Secretary Brian Summers</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More often than not, we find that the University is better able to make a positive impact through engagement, discussion and, indeed, the outputs of its academic endeavors. We adopt this approach rather than making public statements, because statements can risk disaffecting others and curtailing constructive dialogue, which is itself a cornerstone of successful academic discourse.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">November 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="https://fossilfreeuea.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/response-from-brian-summers.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fort Lewis College Board of Directors</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One concern with divestment is that when donors contribute to the FLC Foundation’s endowment, they are entrusting the Foundation to use their funds to improve both the quality of and access to a Fort Lewis College education for students. To use the endowment as leverage to try and force political or social change, regardless of how worthy the cause, could put the Foundation at odds with the fiduciary duty given to them by donors.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 2014</font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McGill University Board of Governors</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the discussion, it was noted that a number of energy companies are actively engaged in research into and the production of alternate forms of energy, which suggests that investment in these companies may help to promote and encourage the use of alternate sources of energy.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">May 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mcgill.ca/boardofgovernors/files/boardofgovernors/camsr_documents_0.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Oregon Board of Trustees</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Foundation carefully stewards the endowment to provide stable funding support for the students, faculty, and staff that make up the UO community. This support can be seen on campus through endowed professorships, scholarships, and study abroad programs, just to name a few.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Date Unlisted -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.uofoundation.org/s/1540/foundation/index.aspx?sid=1540&gid=1&calcid=1063&calpgid=61&pgid=252&ecid=6775&crid=0" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Reed College </span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">Board of Trustees</span></font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some were animated principally by concern that the requested action would have a significant negative impact on the endowment. They stressed that Reed’s endowment is largely invested in funds whose strategies permit quick and untrammeled decision-making by fund managers. To these members, divesting from funds with carbon exposure would mean dissociating from managers carefully selected for the likelihood of high performance.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Others stressed that in light of the college’s continued use of fossil fuels, and similar reliance on fossil fuels by nearly all of the members of our community, to the degree such a gesture would purport to contribute to a solution, it would lack the integrity we all expect from the Reed community.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">July</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> 2014</span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"> -&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/september2014/articles/eliot_circular/divest.html" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seattle University Chief Financial Officer Connie Kanter</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Using endowment funds entrusted to us by donors for a purpose other than their original intent is an extraordinary step. As some participants in SSA’s recent forum noted, divestment from fossil fuels will neither impact the finances nor change the behavior of affected companies. We believe there are more effective ways to address climate change. For these reasons, we are not prepared to move forward on a feasibility study of divestment from fossil fuel companies.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/04/14/seattle-university-rejects-divestment-from-fossil-fuels&view=comments" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Rhode Island President Michael J. Smith</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, the energy sector represents a large portion of the global economy and equity market capitalization. Excluding this sector would represent a significant reduction in the Foundation’s potential investment opportunities.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">March 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/421074/24559784/1395186372277/Fossil+Free_sig.pdf?token=kemO11yzQKSyWJ015lJ4DIJP0Z0%3D" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Vermont Finance and Investment Committee Member David Daigle</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our primary responsibility is to protect the endowment and my continuing fear is that this proposal would have a significant impact on the ability to balance the risks and rewards within the endowment by cutting out a substantial portion of the economy.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">December 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2013/12/18/uvm-trustees-reject-fossil-fuel-divestment/4117649/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton & Provost Holden Thorp</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The most recent communication from the student organizers lays out several demands that we cannot and will not meet. However, there are steps we are going to take to address concerns that have been raised.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="https://news.wustl.edu/run/Documents/Leaders-Perspective-Student-Demonstration.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wellesley College President Kim Bottomly</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The result of that examination was conclusive: the cost to Wellesley would be high and the economic impact on fossil fuels companies inconsequential.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">March 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wellesley.edu/about/president/mytake/divestment" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Wisconsin University Ad Hoc Committee on Fossil Fuel Use and Climate Change</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many individuals involved in the environmental movement at the University told us that they consider divestment either a red herring or a distraction from the more important and difficult behavioral changes we need to consider down the road.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">February 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://secfac.wisc.edu/senate/2014/0203/2472%20Fossil%20fuel%20use%20and%20climate%20change%20report.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers) Chief Executive Officer Anne Stausboll</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Engagement is the first call of action and is the most effective form of communicating concerns with the companies in which we invest. That is why, when it comes to climate change and its risks, Calpers’ view is that the path to change lies in engaging energy companies, instead of divesting them. If we sell our shares then we lose our ability as shareowners to influence companies to act responsibly.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">March </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">2015 </span><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">-&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/def47f8c-bb8d-11e4-b95c-00144feab7de.html" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">California San Francisco’s Employees Retirement System Officer Brian Stansbury</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you go to some of the biggest assets in our portfolio, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, you see they are not just a fossil-fuel company. They are involved in solar, they are involved in natural gas. You can’t just turn off the spigot to fossil fuels and turn on something else. I do not see our portfolio without energy.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">October 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/sf-board-decides-not-to-divest-pension-money-from-fossil-fuel-companies/Content?oid=2602319" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">California CalSTRS</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In this case, divestment bears the risk of adversely affecting an investment portfolio and severs any chance to advance positive change through shareholder advocacy. …American dependency on fossil fuels dominates every facet of businesses both willing and unwilling to engage in alternative energy solutions. Without an alternative, the motivation to surrender an extremely lucrative and foundational endeavor complicates any incentive to change. Divestment in this situation is akin to asking a coffee shop to stop serving coffee.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">August 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.calstrs.com/blog-entry/engaged-conversation-divestment" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Massachusetts MACRS President Denis Devine</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Every member of the Board has a fiduciary responsibility to his systems’ investments. With PRIT showing an annualized return of ten percent or better on funds invested in oil or gas by their investment managers, it would be a violation of their duty to tell their managers to remove fossil fuel equities from their fund.&nbsp;</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">September 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.massretirees.com/article/issues/legislation/macrs-executive-board-votes-oppose-divestiture-fossil-fuel-pension-funds" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Massachusetts Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Changing out of fossil fuels is important, but it doesn’t have the same moral problem. Sudan, South Africa and Iran, we were making moral cases. There were immoral regimes that were abusing people. Objecting to blatant violations of human rights is different than pushing for public policy change, even if a very worthy one.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">May 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/05/fossil_fuel_divestment_campaig.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michigan Executive Director at City of Ann Arbor Employees Retirement System Nancy Walker</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There really aren’t any index funds that will exclude fossil fuels, at least at first investigation,” she said, noting the retirement system’s consultant took a look at the market and didn’t find any index funds that screen out fossil fuels. Walker said there could be “some fairly significant costs” associated with adopting a new investment strategy screening out fossil fuels.&nbsp;</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">October 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2013/10/divesting_from_fossil_fuel_com.ht" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Oregon Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Divestment from fossil fuel stocks will not achieve the tangible results we want. Academic studies demonstrate that divestment actions, on their own, have no measurable effect on the value of targeted companies and do not change corporate behavior. The main problem with divestment is that when one party sells a stock in the open market, another party buys it. There is no guarantee that the new owners will be advocates for either responsible management strategies, or for reduced carbon emissions. The companies themselves are not impacted – top executives likely won’t even know that shares were traded.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">June 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/06/state_fossil-fuel_disinvestmen.html." target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vermont Vermont Treasurer Beth Pearce</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I have concerns about the methodology…Divestment is a strategy that says ‘I’m walking away’ and somebody else is going to buy that share. I think the worst emission culprits are the folks we should be concentrating our efforts on.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">October 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.reformer.com/state/ci_26796347/vermont-lawmakers-revisit-fossil-fuel-divestment" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington Washington Treasurer James McIntire</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most of the investment board’s contributions are “externally and passively managed,” so it would be a “difficult and costly exercise to divest. But more importantly, once you sell your stock, you’ve lost your voice and any influence you had in the way the company is being managed.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">September 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.columbian.com/news/2014/sep/17/study-washington-invest-fossil-fuel-projects/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Swarthmore College Board of Managers</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After long and deep discussion and debate, the Board decided not to modify its investment guidelines to allow for use of the endowment to meet social objectives. This decision effectively ratifies the Board’s September 2013 decision not to divest from fossil fuels, either on a full or partial basis.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace our current investment managers with ones of similar quality, if we were only to invest in funds that were fossil fuel free. By having access to the best investment managers, the College has achieved excellent returns in a shifting landscape. If we were not able to work with these investment managers, it would cost the college between $10 and $20 million annually based on the past performance of our current managers. Our endowment is large but it is still finite. If returns were lower we would be facing difficult budget choices.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">May 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/board-managers/sustainability-and-investment-policy" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pomona College President David Oxtoby</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Symbolic actions have their place. But at colleges and universities, our first goal is to educate students to be skeptical about simple claims and to weigh competing values. Then we encourage them to build on their values to make a difference in the world. That will be done most effectively in the area of climate change not by headline-grabbing divestment decisions at individual institutions, but by helping to build a coalition and elect public officials for whom climate change is a compelling and urgent issue.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many of those involved in the divestment movement say quite candidly that they do not expect divestment (even by major universities with much larger endowments than our own, and recently by our Claremont Colleges neighbor Pitzer College) to have an effect on the policies of the companies involved.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">September 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Divestiture-Is-Nothing-but-a/148789" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Edinburgh</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We live in a world where nearly one in five of the global population are without access to electricity. Whilst we all wish to deliver their energy needs with clean energy supplies, the university sees energy access for the world’s poorest to be an equally high priority – in terms of their wellbeing – as the carbon content of that energy. The university believes there are reasonable energy alternatives to coal and oil from tar sands in most countries. However, it does not see fully developed energy alternatives at present to conventional oil and gas, and so we are not targeting these industries.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">June 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/divestment-policy-aimed-at-engaging-and-improving-performance-1-3805407" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Cornell University Professor Earth and Atmospheric Sciences professor Larry Brown</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[The resolution to divest] undermines the most precious asset a university has in addressing any controversial issue: its reputation as an unbiased source of scientific knowledge.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Divestment] only serves to reduce the incentive of the fossil fuel industry to engage with Cornell faculty in any meaningful way.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We all owe our current standard of living and likely our very existence to the inexpensive energy that the fossil fuel industry has provided over the past century.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">March 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://cornellsun.com/blog/2015/03/25/cornellians-debate-fossil-fuel-divestment/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cornell University President David J. Skorton</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our endowment has been built up over generations to advance the academic mission of the university, and we must resist, in almost all cases, the temptation to manage these precious funds to further social or political causes, no matter how worthy. I believe divestment in this case will be predominantly a symbolic gesture. Symbolism and thought leadership certainly have an important place in all universities. However, the potential financial risks to our campus do not support divestment at this time. The endowment’s central purpose must continue to be to provide resources essential to furthering our academic goals as well as the affordability and accessibility of our university.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">February 2014 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/02/skorton-responds-faculty-senate-call-divestment" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">Bill Gates</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Bill Gates</span></font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I think the solution is investment…My concern is that I love the fact that students and people care about climate change, and I don’t want to make them think that if they get people to divest that they’ve solved climate change.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I don’t see a direct path between divesting and solving climate change. I think it’s wonderful that students care and now the Pope cares. But that energy of caring, I think you need to direct it towards something that solves the problem.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">June 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/fossil-fuel-divestment-alone-not-halt-climate-change-210725115.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Harvard University Professor Director of environmental economics program Robert Stavins</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The concerns of the students are understandable but the message from the divestment movement is fundamentally misguided…We should be focusing on actions that will make a real difference.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">June 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-23/for-all-their-talk-colleges-divest-little-after-climate-protest" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MIT Director of Earth Resources Laboratory Brad Hager</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We need to apply some discrimination, and that’s what’s wrong with this divestment movement, it throws everything out rather than making thoughtful choices about what is good and what we should keep, and what we should get rid of.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">June 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/article/538256/debating-divestment/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Stanford University Professor Economics professor and director of energy and sustainable development program Frank Wolak</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These efforts are pure window dressing and, much to my surprise, the student groups are complicit in this deception</font></p></div><p class="right" style="background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">June 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-23/for-all-their-talk-colleges-divest-little-after-climate-protest" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Boston College Director of Public Affairs and university spokesperson Jack Dunn</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Divestment] would be done if there is a clear compelling case that shows a particular company is doing something unethical, we do not think that companies that are engaged in energy production are engaged in unethical conduct.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We need the energy [fossil fuel companies produce]. It’s what keeps the lights on in our classrooms and what heats our residence halls, it’s what enables us to come and go by car and plane at the beginning of each semester, there is not a viable alternative to the energy that is produced by energy companies. There is a practical reality that we have to be aware of.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">March 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://bcgavel.com/2015/03/11/boston-college-speaks-up-about-divestment-climate-justice/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Swarthmore College Board of Managers</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Divestment’s potential success as a moral response is limited-if not completely negated-so long as its advocates continue to turn on the lights, drive cars, and purchase manufactured goods, for it is these activities that constitute the true drivers of fossil fuel companies’ economic viability-their profits. It is important that we ourselves acknowledge that our consumption of energy makes us complicit in the threat to the planet and that it is in our hands to reduce our demand for it.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is our collective judgment that the cost of divestment would far outweigh any potential benefit. If we thought divestment would change the behavior of fossil fuel companies, or galvanize public officials to do something about climate change, or reduce America’s reliance on fossil fuels, this would be a much tougher decision. We believe we have other, more effective means to achieve this objective.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">September 2013 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/board-managers/open-letter-divestment" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">National Association of College and University Business Officers Director of research and policy at NACUBO Ken Redd</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s that the school and their endowment managers&nbsp;have fiduciary responsibility not to divest.&nbsp;If they think divesting would hurt endowment performance, it’s their legal responsibility to say no. It’s not really a choice.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">June 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://morningconsult.com/2015/07/in-divesting-from-fossil-fuels-universities-make-compromises/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Robert Gordon University (Scotland) RGU Principal and professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RGU has identified oil and gas as one of its strategic priorities. We are in an oil and gas region, and the industry is vital for the current and future health of the economy and society of the north-east of Scotland.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All institutions should support the responsible use of energy, but this is achieved most effectively through greater innovation and the availability of high value skills. Divesting from oil and gas shares could send the wrong message about this important agenda.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">July 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/81478/principal-defends-rgus-shares-in-oil-and-gas-firms/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div class="w-row quote-row" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);"><div class="w-col w-col-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; float: left; width: 599px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;"><h4 class="school-attribution-inner" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; padding-left: 16px; line-height: 24px; font-weight: 300; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Otago Vice-Chancellor Harlene Hayne</font></h4><div class="what-they-re-saying" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 18px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Divesting requires investing in the first place … I’d be very concerned about the fact that we would be making an announcement that has no teeth.</font></p></div><p class="right" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; text-align: right; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">October 2015 -&nbsp;<a href="http://www.odt.co.nz/campus/university-otago/359269/uni-defers-decision-fossil-fuel-divestment" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Read Full Remarks</a></font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div>