Hailey Talbert, Contributing Photographer

The Yale Endowment Justice Coalition gathered to host a teach-in for students in Linsly-Chittenden Hall last week.

The EJC, which was founded in 2018 in response to the University’s monetary involvement in the Puerto Rican debt crisis, is a nonhierarchical, student-run organization that seeks to hold Yale accountable for what they have labeled as unethical investment practices. In recent years, these efforts have centered around the legality and ethicality of Yale’s investment in the fossil fuel industry, which members claim runs in opposition to the University’s responsibilities to its students and the surrounding community.

“It is not enough to divest. Yale must also do work to heal the harm,” Lumisa Bista ’25 said.

The EJC began the teach-in by sharing its mission statement with the audience. Their goal, organizers told audience members, is to have the University disclose and divest its holdings in what the group calls extractive and exploitative industries — such as fossil fuels, arms manufacturing and distribution and immigration detention centers.

The EJC also notes on their website that they hope that Yale will formalize a policy framework that mandates “transparency, accountability, and social responsibility” on the part of Yale and its stakeholders. In the teach-in, EJC organizers highlighted their demand that Yale commit significant resources of its endowment to communities, especially those in New Haven that have been negatively affected by the University’s holdings.

In large, red letters, one EJC member wrote a number on the board — $41.4 billion — to note the size of Yale’s endowment.

The speakers claimed that if Yale spent 0.7 percent more of their endowment per year on the student population, it would cover the costs of tuition, room and board for every undergraduate. According the speakers, if Yale spent six to seven percent of the endowment instead of five percent per year on undergraduate students, the endowment would still grow.

In response to the EJC’s claims, University spokesperson Karen Peart emphasized the University’s efforts to invest in the New Haven community, pointing to a “140 million+ pledge” University President Peter Salovey made to the city in November 2021.

Coalition members then described the foundation of Yale’s investment portfolio. They claimed that Yale’s investment strategy has influenced other universities with large endowments. The speakers said that Yale operates as if it were a corporation but has the legal standards of a non-profit.

“Yale’s theory around its investment has always been high risk, high reward investments,” Bista claimed.

After introducing these statistics, EJC members asked audience members to turn and speak with their neighbors about how they think Yale’s endowment should be spent.

Audience answers ranged from greater investment in New Haven public schools to divestment from fossil fuels, an issue that the EJC has clashed with the University over in recent years.

The dispute over fossil fuel investment became the central topic of the teach-in. EJC members leading the teach-in claimed that University administrators and Corporation members mislead the Yale community by creating committees on ethical investing, which they said has resulted only in the release of a Board of Trustees-approved set of “guiding but non-binding principles” on fossil fuel investment in 2021. 

In an email to the News, Peart wrote that “faculty experts” developed the principles, which she said are binding. She added that the principles “make ineligible for investment any company whose actions are “antithetical to a transition to a carbon-free economy.”

“This principled approach has not led Yale to ‘full’ divestment but takes a more nuanced approach that allows Yale to be a responsible part of the solution, by calling out specific bad behaviors by fossil fuel producers,” Peart wrote to the News. “This also prevents a rushed transition to renewable energy sources that could do harm to many of the world’s most vulnerable populations who currently rely on fossil fuel consumption.”

Peart further pointed to the University’s commitment to involve students, faculty and New Haven community members in its carbon-neutrality efforts.

Some teach-in attendees told the News they were surprised to learn that Yale continues to invest in fossil fuels, noting that they were disappointed in the University’s lack of transparency on the matter.

“I actually wasn’t aware that Yale was invested in fossil fuels,” said Layla Woods ’27, who attended the talk. “It was weird that I did not know that. Maybe that is indicative of a greater issue that Yale is not transparent to students, with its alumni and with its community.”

The EJC submitted a complaint to the Connecticut Attorney General William Tong asserting that the University holds between $800 million and $2.5 billion in investments in the fossil fuel industry.

In addition to highlighting those numbers, EJC members claimed in the teach-in that Yale uses delay tactics to mitigate student concerns.

“There are four layers of committees until we can communicate our concerns,” Naina Agrawal-Hardin ’25 said. “Yale wants to quiet student concerns without actually divesting.” 

EJC members then shifted their focus to discussing the potential impacts Yale would have if the Corporation decided to divest from fossil fuels.

They cited Yale’s power as a well-respected University in claiming that a decision by the University to divest would add momentum to the larger divestment movement across college campuses. They mentioned that peer institutions such as Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Cornell and Dartmouth have divested from fossil fuel investments.

“Divesting sends a powerful message,” Amelia Fortgang ’26 said.

EJC members also highlighted their recent protests. In December 2017, 48 students sat in and were arrested at the Yale Investments Office, and in September 2019, over 100 Yale students walked out of class to protest Yale’s investment in fossil fuels.

At the end of the event, Agrawal-Hardin said that EJC members hope teach-ins they host will help students to understand the scope of Yale’s wealth and how it has been used throughout history.

In the semester ahead, EJC members spoke about their plans including a trip to the College Climate Gathering at Brown University in early November. Members also said they hope to get thousands of parents during parents’ weekend to pledge not to donate to Yale until the University has divested from the fossil fuel industry. Members concluded the teach-in presentation by asking attendees to get involved in the EJC throughout the semester. 

“We need you. We need everyone. We are stronger together,” Fortgang said.

The Yale Endowment Justice Coalition was founded in 2018.

Correction, Oct. 4: While the EJC said during its teach-in that the ethical investment principles released in 2021 are not binding, the University spokesperson told the News that they are binding; the article has been updated to more accurately reflect this.