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
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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