Brandeis Climate Justice is a campus organization of undergraduate and graduate students. The group is committed to decarbonizing the economy, mitigating the worst consequences of climate disruption and assisting those most affected by our changing atmosphere and oceans. As young people inheriting an increasingly-fraught ecological future, the climate crisis is the most pressing issue of our era, with tremendous consequences for the future of social justice. 

We write today to urge the members of the Board of Trustees to discuss student and faculty calls for a fossil-free endowment. Since the fall of 2012, students, professors and the administration have all organized and shown a strong demand for action from the Board: 

On April 25, 2013, a strong majority (79 percent) of students voted to support our petition urging Brandeis University to sell its investments in fossil fuels. Last year, 149 Brandeis professors — constituting over 36 percent of the senior faculty — signed a petition organized by Faculty Against the Climate Threat and urged “those in charge of the endowment to remove all financial investments from fossil fuel interests.” Responding to strong student pressure, the administration convened the “Exploratory Committee on Fossil Fuel Divestment” in the spring of 2013. After studying the issue for two years, in May 2015 the committee recommended “that Brandeis strongly considers divesting its holdings in fossil fuel firms. Student consensus and robust faculty concern suggests that continued investment in fossil fuels presents a fundamental tension with Brandeis’ proud tradition of social justice.” 

Despite community action and the urgency of the climate science, the Board of Trustees has remained silent and inactive on this pressing issue. We are very concerned the Board is ignoring student concerns. Pursuant to Brandeis’s 1973 investment criteria, it is clear that Brandeis students, faculty and stakeholders believe that continuing to profit from fossil fuel is “clearly and gravely offensive to the University community’s sense of social justice.”

Brandeis students and faculty contend that the University should not continue to profit from the fuels that are driving climate disruption. As the Divestment Committee report made clear, Brandeis’s energy investments today are literally shaping the climatic future of the University’s students and stakeholders. Fossil fuels are not “investments” if they are eroding the ecological foundations of our future. 

We urge the trustees to please discuss the campus-wide demand for divestment at their next meeting and let the community know their decision. Continued inaction on this issue will diminish Brandeis’ proud reputation as a leader in social justice — especially in the eyes of current and future students, like us, who see the climate crisis as one of the most urgent challenges of our time. We implore the trustees to commit to a fossil-free endowment and ensure a more just and sustainable future.

—Phil Wight PhD Candidate & Dan Klein ’18 are members of Brandeis Climate Justice.