We, the student body of Santa Clara University, call on administration to take action and divest from fossil fuels.

Global temperatures have risen an unprecedented  ~1.98 degrees Fahrenheit since 1901. Our local Santa Clara community is already grappling with the disastrous effects of climate change. The United States’ tainted legacy of irresponsible waste disposal is directly seen through Santa Clara County’s 23 toxic waste sites, more than any other county in the nation. These sites are regularly linked to cancer, infant mortality, food-borne illnesses, and mental health effects. Being in the heart of Silicon Valley, our community has borne witness to anthropogenic environmental degradation such as raging wildfires, unprecedented droughts, and sea level rise. This ultimately poses a critical question. How will Santa Clara University acknowledge and advocate for our community and beyond, who are actively suffering from the climate crisis?

As a Jesuit institution of higher education, the University has a financial and moral responsibility to invest in the future of both its students as well as our planet. Fossil fuel investment is the antithesis of this. Santa Clara University, through its leadership and innovation, finds itself in a fortunate situation in having the financial means to divest –  being in the 5% of all U.S. universities to have raised $1 billion through the ‘Santa Clara Rising’ capital campaign. Coupled with our ~$1.5 billion endowment and the University’s plethora of investments, the University has the power to do great good, as opposed to great harm. The absolute minimum the University can do to fulfill its financial responsibilities is a full divestment from fossil fuels, in order to cement itself as a leading institution and changemaker. 

We the student body demand that administrative powers recognize the harmful, destructive, and unjust threat that the climate crisis poses to our future. We strongly urge that the Santa Clara University administration first and foremost declare a climate emergency; establish a presidential committee dedicated to divestment work; publish a concrete, transparent divestment policy timeline; and ultimately divest from the fossil fuel industry.

It should be clear to Santa Clara’s administration that the time for dawdling has since passed– climate change is as pressing as ever. SCU boasts a diverse portfolio of investments, yet 4% is invested in fossil fuels.  Santa Clara University will never be the avant-garde university it claims to be if it does not make actionable progress to divest from fossil fuels. Scientists, innovators, and even religious leaders, namely Pope Francis, have been more than abundantly blatant: divestment needs to happen now. Not when the rest of the world fully divests- but now while we still have time before reaching the impending point of no return.