The University of Maryland SGA passed a resolution Wednesday that calls for the University of Maryland College Park Foundation and the University System of Maryland Foundation to divest from companies that engage in environmentally destructive practices and enable climate change.
Under the resolution, which was approved by a vote of 30-3-5, the Student Government Association will begin to lobby this university, the University System of Maryland, the university system foundation and the UMCP foundation to divest from the fossil fuel industry.
Diego Henriquez, the resolution’s sponsor and agriculture representative, said divesting from fossil fuels will play a key role in alleviating the effects of climate change, which is an “ongoing existential threat,” according to the resolution.
”It is not just our financial, fiduciary responsibility to be sustainable,” the sophomore environmental science and technology major said. “I say it’s a moral imperative to divest from fossil fuels.”
The resolution also urges the foundations to become signatories of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment — an international investor network that promotes a set of guidelines for institutions to incorporate environmental, social and corporate governance concerns into their investment decisions — that the university system foundation was previously a part of.
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Junior physics and philosophy major Matthew Foos supported the resolution during Monday’s SGA civic engagement and governmental affairs committee meeting. He didn’t know the university system foundation was previously a signatory to the principles, he said, but was also hopeful the university and foundation take student concerns “more seriously” after the resolution’s passage.
“Hopefully [the resolution] is an indicator of other things that we can get done for students, and for students using their political voices to emit positive change,” Foos said. “”I’m just incredibly excited.”
In 2014, an ad hoc committee for socially responsible investing formed to evaluate a proposal from the Fossil Free Maryland student group that called on the university system foundation, which oversees investments for 12 institutions and 11 other affiliates, to divest from fossil fuels.
In a 2016 statement, the ad hoc committee recommended the university system foundation not make direct investments in Carbon Underground 200 companies, which are the top 100 coal companies globally and top 100 oil and gas companies in carbon emissions. The foundation did not make any direct investments in these companies during fiscal 2017, according to the statement.
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The committee also recommended the university system foundation become a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment. The foundation signed onto the principles in November 2016, according to the statement.
But the university system foundation later left the network sometime between April 1, 2020, and March 1, 2021, according to the 2021 Principles for Responsible Investment report.
This semester’s resolution alleges that the university system foundation failed to uphold its commitment to the network.
Henriquez said the foundation quietly backed out of its commitment to the Principles for Responsible Investment. But this resolution’s purpose is to remind the foundation that it committed to divesting from the fossil fuel industry before, he added.
Ember Modrell-Osorio, who recently transferred to this university, said the resolution could have a significant impact on her peers.
The junior psychology major hopes the resolution not only encourages students to continue environmentally sustainable practices, but also pushes them to call for divestment from other corporations that produce fossil fuels that harm the environment.
This university declined to comment on the resolution. The university system, the university system foundation and UMCP foundation did not respond to The Diamondback’s request for comment.
