# Invitation to a Dialogue: How Colleges Invest

1 Opinion April 27, 2015 The New York Times ![Michael Posner](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_046658.jpg?itok=t24nqftK) By Michael Posner > Universities need to move from defensive — fending off divestment campaigns — to a more affirmative approach, exploring how to generate solid financial returns while rewarding long-term, sustainable business practices.

To the Editor:

In recent weeks, students at Harvard, Yale, Bowdoin and Swarthmore have staged sit-ins demanding that their schools divest from companies that mine fossil fuels. These students are right to be alarmed about the perilous state of our planet, but the widespread resistance by university administrators to these divestment campaigns and the lack of results call for a new approach.

Rather than divestment, how about a “sustainable investment campaign” on campuses, urging universities to put their money behind companies that are doing the right thing for our planet and its people?

The combined endowments of North American colleges and universities are more than $450 billion. These endowments generate funds to support teaching, research and scholarships. But schools have erected rigid walls separating their academic values and mission and the instructions they give their investment teams. While some universities have established advisory committees to examine the impact of their investments on social and environmental issues, too often these efforts are purely reactive.

Read the full letter as published in [The New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/opinion/invitation-to-a-dialogue-how-colleges-invest.html?ref=opinion)

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*Michael Posner is a Professor of Business and Society and Co-Director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.*## More Opinions from Michael Posner

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