Harvard tells Bill McKibben to take a hike: University will NOT divest fossil fuel holding

Inside Climate News reports:

Harvard University, the world’s richest school, won’t sell its investments in fossil-fuel companies amid pressure from students, President Drew Faust said in a letter released today.

“I do not believe, nor do my colleagues on the Corporation, that university divestment from the fossil fuel industry is warranted or wise,” Faust said in the letter, referring to Harvard Corporation, the school’s governing board. “The endowment is a resource, not an instrument to impel social or political change.”

Students at more than 300 schools in the U.S. have formed groups in the past year seeking to pressure colleges to divest from Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and about 200 other companies with the largest reserves of oil, gas and coal. While some smaller institutions such as Unity College in Unity, Maine, and Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, endorsed the campaign, most have declined.

http://insideclimatenews.org/breaking-news/20131004/harvard-wont-divest-its-327b-endowment-fossil-fuels