160 Princeton faculty and staff members: The University must fully divest from fossil fuels

The following petition, which can be signed here, has been signed by 160 members of the Princeton University faculty and staff as of April 18. It asks that Princeton University, by the end of this calendar year, no longer seek profit from continued investment in fossil fuels. Since this statement was opened for signature, the University has made public that:

• The Princeton endowment’s total fossil fuel exposure is roughly 4.5 percent, or about $1.7 billion.  
• In the past five years, the University has received $26.2 million in new funding from eleven oil and gas companies.

(Source: Hilary A. Parker, Vice President and Secretary of Princeton University, Dissociation Update, Council of the Princeton University Community, March 21, 2022.)

As the world rapidly disengages from carbon-emitting energy sources by clear necessity, we believe it incompatible with the University’s moral principles to seek profit from continued investment in fossil fuels. We thus call on its leaders to adopt a policy of complete divestment during this calendar year, in keeping with the majority of Ivy League peer institutions.

Since 2013, many Princetonians have advocated for fossil fuel divestment. In May 2021, the University’s Trustees authorized a process to consider dissociation from fossil fuel companies currently spreading climate disinformation, or involved in coal and tar sands production (which together account for less than 25 percent of US fossil fuel emissions). We feel this is not enough; we are fast losing the only home we have.

Former Princeton president Harold Shapiro said, “One aspect of a student’s moral education lies not in the curriculum but in the behavior of the faculty, staff, and administration and in the policies of the institution.” We are faculty and staff proud to work at a university whose slogan reflects its global reach and ambitions — “Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of humanity”— and we join thousands of students and alumni in asking that, on this of all issues, our actions align with our aspirations.

Signatures as of 4/18/2022

David Wilcove

Zia Mian

Rob Nixon

Denise L. Mauzerall

Anne McClintock

Jerry Zee

Karl Kusserow

Curtis Deutsch

Kenneth Hammond

Frank N. von Hippel

Su Friedrich

Peter Wirzbicki

Jason Rhode

Andrew Cole

Raphael Piguet

Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt

Sandie Blaise

Sophie Gee

Meredith Martin

Nicole Legnani

Rachel Price

V. Mitch McEwen

Kate Thorpe

Sara Constantino

Karen Mink

Seth Denizen

Susan Stewart

Gillian Knapp

Bradin Cormack

Christina A. León

Daniel Garber

Katie Chenoweth

Pedro Meira Monteiro

Ryan Darr

Allison Carruth

Gayle Salamon

Alberto Bruzos Moro

Susan Sugarman

Gavin Steingo

Stanley Allen

Tamsen Wolff

Barbara Nagel

Sarah M. Anderson

Brooke Holmes

Sebastien Philippe

Marina Rustow

Fazal Sheikh

Jeff Dolven

Molly Greene

Russ Leo

Michael Strauss

Bryan Lowe

Margot Canaday

Susana Draper

Steven Chung

Jeff Snyder

Sarah Chihaya

Melissa Lane

Irene Small

Anastasia Mann

João Biehl

Anne A. Cheng

Hal Foster

Denis Feeney

Divya Cherian

Zahid Chaudhary

Barron Bixler

Sean Cashbaugh

Eve Aschheim

Shachi Gawande

Ben Baer

Miguel A. Centeno

Ryo Morimoto

Michael D. Gordin

Deborah Kaple

Joshua Guild

Holly Caggiano

Gyan Prakash

Erin Besler

Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi

Max Weiss

Sonya Legg

Spyros Papapetros

Johannes Wankhammer

Joshua Billings

Deborah Yashar

Susan Wheeler

John Borneman

Stewart Prager

Alex Glaser

Elliott Lieb

Judith Weisenfeld

Julia Elyachar

Igor Moric

Rena Lederman

Satyel Larson

Rachael Z. DeLue

Karen Emmerich

Yael Niv

Andrew Leifer

Aleksandar Hemon

German Labrador Mendez

Sara Al-Sayed

Pamela A Patton

David Stirk

Laura Giles

Janet Rauscher

Mitra Abbaspour

Janna Israel

Lindy McBride

Naomi Murakawa

Christina Riehl

Allison Wolf

Ronni Baer

Bryan R. Just

Zoe Kwok

Lee Klocksin

Andrea L Graham

Robert Hawkins

Anna Brouwer

Beth Gollnick

Stephanie Whetstone

Kim Wishart

Katherine Bussard

Alexia Hughes

Ian Bourg

Rosemary Grant

Dan-el Padilla Peralta

Jenn Lyons

Stanley N. Katz

Forrest Meggers

Thomas Y Levin

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Elie Bou-Zeid

Ning Lin

Andrew Chignell

Carmelita Becnel

Kevin M. Kruse

Kathy Wagner

Gabriela Nouzeilles

Kanu Sinha

Jessica Thompson

Stephan Thiberge

James Barkas

Aaron Landsman

Mark Drury

Christiane Fellbaum

Andy Dobson

Peter D. Meyers

Matthew Karp

Darcy James Argue

Idra Novey

Noah Buchholz

Erin West

Aron Talenfeld

V. Balaji

Jeff Whetstone

Emile Askey

Guy Nordenson

Tera W. Hunter