This piece reflects the views of the author, Jack Dodson, and not those of Emerald Media Group. It has been edited by the Emerald for grammar and style. Send your columns or submissions about our content or campus issues to [email protected].
The UO Foundation, which manages the $2.8 billion endowment of the University of Oregon, has been lying to us for 8 years. In June of 2016, Paul Weinhold, President and CEO of the UO Foundation, claimed “We have one percent invested in carbon-based energy […] We don’t have any direct investments [in fossil fuels].”
In September of that year, the UO Foundation promised to let those investments “expire without renewal, ending our investment in carbon-based fuel sources,” though it wouldn’t divest immediately, citing complications with existing agreements.
This announcement came after years of pressure from students, faculty, staff, and the greater Eugene community. These efforts featured teach-ins, rallies, sit-ins at Johnson Hall, a mock wedding between the Duck and a fossil fuel executive, and divestment resolutions passed by the student body and the UO Senate (faculty).
Students won divestment! Well, not exactly. The Foundation’s investments still weren’t publicly visible, meaning people had to trust UO to keep its promise. Last year, President Scholz defended this lack of investment disclosure, saying investment firms don’t want to share their “secret sauce” combination of profitable investments.
This is not entirely true. The UO Foundation could clarify its holdings by sector without divulging where each cent is invested.
Given the administration’s many misdeeds in recent years, from undermining faculty decision-making power over academic policies to its atrocious record regarding sexual assaults on campus, skepticism about divestment is warranted.
In 2021, students pressured the Foundation for an update. In a resulting Daily Emerald interview with Weinhold, he said fossil fuel investments were “literally a fraction of what we had in 2016.” Additionally, “Weinhold said all of the foundation’s existing investments are set to run out within the next one to two years.”
In 2023, when the investments should have ended, the Foundation’s website said “Currently, less than 5% of the Foundation’s direct holdings are invested in fossil fuel extraction and all remaining direct investments will expire by 2027.” It still says that today.
Yes, in 2016, the UO Foundation said it invested one percent in carbon-based energy and nothing in direct fossil fuel extraction. In 2021, it said it had “a fraction” of the fossil fuel investments it had in 2016. Today, it says less than 5% is invested in fossil fuel extraction and it will expire by 2027. It certainly looks like the Foundation has lied for the past eight years and fossil fuel investments have increased instead of decreasing.
For this, the Foundation’s CEO and CFO received 23% and 54% pay raises last year, bringing their earnings to $642,673 and $317,846 respectively.
One month after the 2021 interview, the Foundation hired Jasper Ridge Partners as an investment advisor. Perhaps this led to the broken promise to stop investing in fossil fuels.
Since 2016, the Foundation’s investments have grown from $873 million to $2.8 billion, thanks to a massive fundraising campaign. This jump from a 1% investment in carbon-based energy and none in fossil fuels to a 5% investment in fossil fuels while its investment pool grew by 221% means fossil fuel investments may have grown by 1504% since it promised to stop investing in them.
The UO Foundation praises itself for ethical investing on its website, yet it invests in fossil fuels, an industry that causes immense suffering, brutality, and death.
President Scholz speaks about maximizing the Foundation’s returns, however, divesting from fossil fuels does not mean losing money. The State of Oregon divested the Public University Fund from fossil fuels in 2017, and its divested portfolio matched or exceeded its benchmark the majority of the time.
Furthermore, investing in fossil fuels is incredibly costly in the long term, as it funds greenhouse-gas emitting projects that worsen climate change. It’s much less expensive to prevent extreme weather events than to clean up after them.
The fight for divestment is not over. The UO Foundation must disclose its investments. We cannot take them at their word because they have lied in the past and will lie again to preserve the status quo.
They must divest completely from fossil fuels, war, and everything else bringing destruction to humanity. UO cannot claim to support its students while funding the demise of our future.
The UO community must pressure the Foundation to divest and disclose, as Foundation leaders will resist any change. Let’s make UO better, and make the world better in the process.
– Jack Dodson, UO student, Climate Justice League steering committee member, Fossil Free UO campaign co-lead
