President Liebowitz sent an email concerning divestment to
students, faculty and staff on Tuesday December 4, 2012. He announced that at
least $33 million of the endowment is invested in fossil fuel companies and at
least $7 million is invested in arms manufacturers.
Ron urges that we be “inclusive of all opinions.” To invest
in fossil fuel companies is not an opinion. It is an act of violence against
our planet. To invest in war is not an opinion. It is an act of violence
against people.
Ron wants to consider “what the implications might be for
the College, for faculty, staff, and individual students.” What we should
consider is: what are the implications for our planet and its people —
including but not limited to the College, faculty, staff and students — if we
continue to invest in these companies?
Does our “fiduciary responsibility” take into account what
we ought to be paying to clean up after these companies? Does it take into
account the human costs? If it did, would we still invest in fossil fuel
companies and arms manufacturers?
How many bullets can you buy with $7 million? How many bombs
can you build? Is that 0.8% of the endowment so profitable that it is worth the
price in human life to hold on to it? Knowing that it is such a relatively
small amount of the endowment, it is unconscionable to not divest.
And so the first
question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will
happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the
question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to
him?"
–Martin Luther King
Jr. “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top”
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