To: President Thorsett and Willamette's Board of Trustees:
Willamette University: Go Fossil Free!
This campaign has ended.
Willamette has been nationally ranked as a sustainable university. It is time to live that sustainable title in all levels of the university, including the financial. We call on you and the board of trustees to immediately freeze any new investment in fossil-fuel companies, and to divest within five years from direct ownership and from any commingled funds that include fossil-fuel public equities and corporate bonds.
Why is this important?
"Not unto ourselves alone are we born." Our motto speaks of large responsibility for combating climate change and acting for the greater good . We are witnessing the increasing impacts of a warming planet more and more consistently; in this last year alone our country experienced record-breaking heat, droughts, and hurricanes, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Many who have never had a carbon footprint & contributed to global warming are experiencing the worst effects.
The scientific consensus is clear and overwhelming; we cannot safely burn even half of global fossil-fuel reserves without dangerously warming the planet for several thousand years. As public and atmospheric pressure to confront climate change builds, we call on you and the board of trustees to immediately freeze any new investment in fossil-fuel companies, and to divest within five years from direct ownership and from any commingled funds that include fossil-fuel public equities and corporate bonds. We believe this action will not only be a sound decision for our institution's financial portfolio, but also for the chance for all future graduating classes to have a foreseeable, stable future.
