Middlebury College faculty recently voted 86-7 to endorse the Student Government Association fossil fuel divestment bill, “Resolution to Divest Middlebury’s Endowment From Fossil Fuels”.
Dr. Michael SheridanDuring the discussion, some faculty members were concerned with the fiscal responsibility of divesting and how it could affect the school’s budget, according to the Middlebury Campus.
“In this case, we were acting in an advisory capacity because our job as a faculty is teaching and scholarship, not financial management,” said Dr. Michael Sheridan, associate professor of anthropology and one of the leaders of the motion. “But the administration usually takes this sort of advice seriously, because faculty governance is one of the things that makes Midd work the way it does.”
The Sense of Faculty Motion is not the final decision for the bill, however. The next step is to present the bill to the Board of Trustees in a January meeting.
