Dear Administrators of Yale-NUS College,

As students, faculty and community members, we the undersigned call upon you to express and uphold our institution’s commitment to sustainability. In the face of a rapidly worsening climate crisis that threatens the livelihoods of billions around the globe, Yale-NUS must act with a conscience and make the ethical decision to divest its endowment from the polluters that cause climate change and obstruct climate action. We are optimistic that the Yale-NUS administration believes in the value of sustainability and will work with us to ensure full divestment.

We believe that divesting from fossil fuels upholds the principles on which Yale-NUS College was founded, and allows us to live up to our vision of being “In Asia, for the world”. As community members in a startup college, we understand exceptionally well that everything we do here – from learning in the classroom to developing new programmes and pioneering new student organisations – is an investment in the future. It is therefore morally unacceptable for our university to be poisoning that very same future by investing in polluters. Furthermore, divestment makes economic sense, and universities alongside other institutions across the globe have come together to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in socially responsible enterprises.

As such, we make the following concrete asks:

1. That the College freeze any new investment in fossil fuel companies.
2. That we move towards full divestment of our endowment within the next five years, and reinvest in socially responsible enterprises.
3. That transparency is ensured in the management of the divestment process, such that a good-faith effort is made to include students, faculty and community members in deliberations and updates.
4. That the administration release a statement to the community by May 5th, affirming its commitment to sustainability and ethical management of our investments and institutional partnerships.

Together, we can make Yale-NUS a leader in its institutional commitment to a sustainable future for us all.