Faculty and senior staff at the University of Cambridge are poised to vote on a measure that would require the university to stop accepting funding from coal, oil and gas companies. It would be the first leading university to do so, and a vote could happen as early as this autumn.
People I interviewed would not make any predictions about the vote, but the proposal did appear to have solid support, especially among a younger cohort of academics at the university.
More than half of universities in Britain, and dozens in the United States, have committed to divesting their endowments from fossil fuel companies. Cambridge did that in 2020, saying that the move demonstrated its “determination to seek solutions to the climate crisis.”