ABSTRACT

Thick stacks of paper lined with signatures lay in Laurel Warren's hands. As the administrative assistant to the president of Swarthmore College, she had been handed a sign and a petition, both urging the college to divest from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels were once a cornerstone of any successful portfolio. From "Divest Harvard" to "Divest University of Winnipeg" student groups, the movement is gaining momentum. Still, many universities facing mounting pressures from students have committed to partial divestment or a temporary pause on investment. Hampshire was one of the first colleges to divest entirely from fossil fuels. It invests its endowment of $40 million entirely in socially responsible investment firms. Many parallels can be drawn between the ongoing fossil fuel divestment movement and the movement that took place across college campuses in the 1980s urging colleges to divest from South African companies in an effort to end apartheid.