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Resolution in Support of Fossil Fuel Divestment

December 16, 2020

Adopted by the Rutgers AAUP-AFT Executive Council, December 16, 2020

Whereas, on September 4, 2019, Rutgers AAUP-AFT endorsed the Green New Deal, called for Rutgers University to go carbon neutral, and supported student demands for fossil fuel divestment;

Whereas, this Fall the Rutgers-New Brunswick undergrad student body voted overwhelmingly in favor of fossil fuel divestment;

Whereas, in the intervening period, the call and case for divestment at Rutgers and nationally have only grown stronger—as demonstrated by recent divestment actions on the part of the University of California and the New York State Pension Fund;

Whereas, wider political and economic pressure continues to undercut the value of and add risk to oil, gas, and coal holdings and, by extension, to undermine the value and stability of the University’s portfolio;

Whereas, the damage done by fossil fuel corporations—notably to frontline communities of color—becomes more apparent and more profound every day;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that the Rutgers AAUP-AFT union of faculty, grad workers, and postdocs calls on Rutgers University and the Rutgers University Foundation to immediately begin selling all its holdings in firms that extract, produce, refine, sell, store, or transport oil, gas, or coal, as well as its holdings in firms that provide ancillary services or infrastructure in support of the same;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Union calls upon the University and Foundation to complete those sales, having divested from fossil fuels fully by December 31, 2025;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Union encourages the University and the Foundation to expand its investments in wind, solar, and other forms of renewable energy—with a particular emphasis on contributions towards a just energy transition for displaced workers and frontline communities;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Union urges the University and the Foundation to use their voices as shareholders outside the fossil fuel sector to advance climate justice, racial justice, and economic justice; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the Union calls upon the University and the Foundation to disclose all its holdings in full and in public on an annual basis, as part of a community-wide review of the ethics of those investments.

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Category: Statements and Resolutions
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