Loyola may dump fossil fuel investments

Loyola University could become the first university in Illinois to dump its investments in fossil fuel companies.

Administrators still must decide whether to follow a recommendation by the University Senate, which on Feb. 20 voted 15-1 to pass a resolution urging divestment within five years.

The decision is now in the hands of the Rev. Michael J. Garanzini, Loyola’s president. The recommendation will be discussed in a Board of Trustees meeting in June as well as in an upcoming president’s cabinet meeting, a university spokesman said.

Proponents of divestment say the action would not have a significant impact in Loyola’s endowment and the resolution noted that pulling resources out of fossil fuel companies could prevent future financial risks. About 1 percent of Loyola’s total investments are in fossil fuel companies, said Aana Vigen, a theology professor at Loyola who’s been involved in the initiative.

“It’s not so much that we’re heavily invested, but it is a very strong symbolic action,” Vigen said.

Eric Jones, Loyola’s treasurer and chief investment officer, said the effect of divestment on Loyola’s endowment “depends on the scope of any action” the university decides to take. He added it’s “premature” to make a final statement before the Board of Trustees examines the University Senate’s recommendation.

Garanzini — who will step down in June to become Loyola’s chancellor — prompted the University Senate to look into divestment last year, Vigen said. She helped draft a letter that gathered support from about 200 Loyola faculty members, and said the divestment movement had been brewing at Loyola for a few years. It got a boost last fall, when the environmental organization Sierra Club ranked Loyola the No. 4 greenest university in the nation.

Divestment “is not going to hurt your reputation. This can actually be a draw for professors and students alike,” Vigen said.

The Feb. 20 resolution also calls for investing in renewable energies, something Kelly Hof, a senior and president of the Student Environmental Alliance, said would be an added bonus if Loyola does decide to divest from fossil fuels.

Other universities that have implemented divestment policies include Stanford University in California, and the University of Dayton in Ohio. Seattle University — a Jesuit institution, same as Loyola — rejected a divestment proposal last year.

“Many Jesuit universities and colleges look to us as a leader,” Vigen said.

This is not the first time Loyola has made headlines for environmental sustainability. Over the past three years, the university has implemented bans on plastic water bottles and the sale of plastic bags. The university also fuels its intercampus shuttles with biodiesel made from food fryer oil from the dining halls, a byproduct of which is later transformed into soap for the university’s restrooms.

A new campaign on campus is pushing the university to become carbon neutral by the year 2020, and has taken advantage of Loyola’s second annual Climate Change Conference to demand a date is set for the university to reach this goal.

“This is our moment,” Vigen said. “Nothing threatens human life and well-being like climate change.”