The following is a letter from Divest Carleton Alumni, a group of alumni calling for Carleton to divest their endowment from the 200 largest fossil fuel companies:
The following colleges and universities have made formal commitments to reduce their investments in fossil fuel companies. The schools are grouped below by the time period in which they announced their decisions regarding fossil fuel holdings.
2021
Amherst College
Boston University
Brandeis University
California State University System
Columbia University
Creighton University
Dartmouth College
Harvard University
Loyola University Chicago
Macalester College
Mount Holyoke College
Reed College
Rutgers University
St. Olaf College
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
University of Oregon Foundation
University of Southern California
University of St. Thomas
Vassar College
Wellesley College
2020
American University
Antioch University
Brown University
Cornell University
George Washington University
Georgetown University
University of Illinois
Wesleyan College
2019
Middlebury College
Smith College
University of California System
University of Massachusetts Foundation
University of Puget Sound
Before 2019
Brevard College
California Institute of the Arts
College of the Atlantic
ESF College Foundation, Inc.
Goddard College
Hampshire College
Lewis & Clark College
Naropa University
Northland College
Oregon State University
Pitzer College
Pratt Institute
Prescott College
Rhode Island School of Design
Salem State University
Seattle University
Sterling College
SUNY New Paltz Foundation
Syracuse University
The New School
Unity College
University of Dayton
University of Hawaii
University of Maryland Foundation
Warren Wilson College
Western Oregon University
Whitman College
Yale University
In addition to these academic institutions, other institutions—such as the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation—have made formal commitments to reduce their investments in fossil fuel companies. Thus far, 1,500 institutions worldwide with managed assets of nearly $40 trillion have committed to reducing their fossil fuel investments.
Each of these institutions has recognized the threat posed by the continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels and decided that a commitment to reducing its investments in fossil fuel companies was an essential part of an appropriate response to this threat. Carleton has recognized this threat but has refused to make the commitment.
Now is the time for Carleton to make a commitment and put itself on the right side of climate change history.
Patrick Dunlevy ’72
Rebecca Hahn ’09
Joshua Rabinowitz ’66
Ben Stiegler ’77
Mindy Bell ’80
Pam Costain ’72
Gina Atwood ’91
Eleanor Haase ’79
Karl Snyder ’12
On Behalf of Divest Carleton Alumni