In a historic vote last May, the Campus Investment Responsibility Committee (CIRC), which is made up of faculty, students, alums and administrators, and makes recommendations to the Board of Trustees on endowment investment decisions, voted to officially recommend direct fossil fuel divestment.
After five years of activism and bureaucratic work, the 7-8 vote came as an enormous victory for the Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign, as well as for campus-wide efforts for transparency and student influence in Vassar’s governance. The Campaign cannot thank enough the CIRC members who devoted so much dedication, time and thoughtfulness to this crucial process.
The next step is to bring this decision in front of the Trustee Investment Responsibility Committee (TIRC), and this (also unprecedented) meeting between CIRC and TIRC will happen this Friday, Oct. 20, when the Trustees are on campus for their tri-annual convening.
The official CIRC report, including an extended rationale for the decision, is accessible from the link below. If you have questions about divestment in general or at Vassar, please reach out to Sophie Cash ’19 at socash@vassar.edu