Most universities have endowment funds — money donated to the school to support its endeavors. Most endowment funds are invested with the goal of generating even more money to sustain the university in the long term. But what if that money is actively making the future worse? Students at five universities believe by investing in fossil fuel companies, their schools are perpetuating the climate crisis — and they’re looking to take legal action to stop it.
According to a report from The Guardian, students at Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, Stanford, and Vanderbilt are hoping to spark legal action that will force their universities to divest from fossil fuels. With the help of the Climate Defense Project, the students have reached out to the attorneys general in their respective states and asked for each school to be investigated for using its endowment funds for illegitimate purposes.
