Editor’s note: In March of 2025, The Pace Press signed the letter mentioned in this article. 

Students have begun a University-wide signature campaign to compel the Board of Trustees to introduce regulations prohibiting the University from unethical investments, with signatures from 62 student organizations including the NYC Students Government Association as well as 80 individual signatures from students across all campuses, including Elisabeth Haub School of Law students. 

Campaigns concerning ethical investment throughout institutions such as colleges have become increasingly common over the past few years, and now such a campaign has begun within the University which advocates for the adoption of prohibitions upon the investment of endowment money into unethical sources, such as weapons, tobacco, fossil fuels, private prisons and entities with documented human rights abuses. 

According to the letter, which the campaign seeks to deliver to the Board of Trustees, the origin of this campaign derives from a task force committee organized by the Provost in December of 2024 following concerns raised by University faculty, staff and students regarding ethical use of endowment funds. 

The task force submitted a proposal to the Board of Trustees’ Investment and Pension Committee in the spring of 2025. Among other things, the proposal is said to have provided suggestions which would “screen out investments deemed unacceptably harmful to the University, broader public and natural environment…and improve transparency.” 

The proposal was examined by the investment firm which handles University Endowment investments, Cambridge Associates, which found “no significant obstacles to implementing the Task Force’s proposals.” Despite this, the Board of Trustees has yet to implement these suggestions, nor any policy of the kind. 

This renewed campaign seeks to ensure that the Board of Trustees is held accountable to this proposal and that University students can advocate for their interest and have their voices heard. The letter calls for aspects of the original proposal, that being further accountability and the codification of a clause within investment policy which would prohibit investment in the aforementioned industries which is viewed as unethical. 

Several anonymous students involved in the present campaign provided their thoughts through an interview regarding the campaign and the letter itself.

Providing more information on the campaign and its timelines, the students explained that this campaign is a component of a larger intended movement towards social and ethical responsibility and sustainability regarding University spending. They added that the campaign came about over the past year or so, citing the circumstances of the committee’s findings as a key motivation. 

The students explained that the idea came from a simple source– the spread of similar ideas and campaigns throughout other institutions. This led to the question: What would it mean for this University to be socially responsible? 

When asked why they saw this as an important action, they addressed the specific position of the University. As cited within the letter, students believe that unethical investment is contrary to the core principles which the University is intended to uphold, specifically the concept of Opportunitas, the University’s mission to make “positive and enduring contributions to our future world.” 

They view this campaign as an act of love to the University and its community, ensuring that the endowment prevents investments which result in a worse future for the students of this University. 

When asked what success would look like for this campaign, they explained two goals of the campaign. Success for this campaign would be to present this letter to the Board of Trustees with hundreds of student signatures, and for the Board to accept the proposal and introduce the clause into its investment policy. The letter, along with its signatures, will be brought before the Board of Trustees during their meeting on May 6. 

While the students hope that this will spur the Board to take action at this meeting, they explain that success in this campaign is not specifically on the timetable. If they do not see the clause accepted from this meeting, they will continue to gather signatures in preparation for the next. The campaign ends when it is successful. 

The main obstacle to this campaign, according to the interviewees, is interest. 

Many campaigns fail because they do not capture the attention and engagement of the student body, and to be forgotten once primary proponents no longer drive them, a common occurrence when these proponents graduate. According to the students, issues can be often delayed with the express intent of “waiting out” the students driving the push for change forward. This is especially important to this campaign which heavily values and emphasizes its intention to uphold continuity and push until change is made. 

Because of this, they explained that they have another goal, ensuring that the need for engagement is not only met, but that students are encouraged to participate in campaigns such as this. As said by one of the students interviewed, this campaign seeks to remind all students of their “power as an activist” to make change. 

The students will continue their campaigning efforts through tabling in the 15 Beekman lobby on Mondays and Tuesdays during common hour. They hope to continue spreading awareness and bring more students in to engage with social responsibility, aiming to reach 75 student organization signatures and as many individual signatures as possible before the next meeting.