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Yale University activists recently failed on three requests to get the school to divest from companies and industries they oppose.
The Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility considered proposals from the Yale Endowment Justice Collective to divest from technology company Palantir, BP and other oil companies, and “military weapons manufacturers.” This advisory committee gives recommendations to the Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility, which itself advises the board of trustees.
The Jan. 7 decision not to divest came after a November pitch by the Endowment Justice Collective. However, activists first proposed divesting from BP in 2024, but the advisory committee had yet to issue a decision.
“The global climate emergency continues to claim thousands of lives per year and displace millions more,” Endowment Justice Collective previously wrote on its Instagram. “At the center are fossil fuel companies who prioritize profit margins over the continued health and safety of our planet and everyone on it.”
Divestment supporters alleged Palantir is connected to human rights abuses in Gaza.
“Palantir is developing software systems used to violate the human rights of both undocumented people in the United States and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” student organizer Diego Loustaunau said.
“Yale has failed to divest from a company that enables ICE’s terror against our neighbors in New Haven, and the IDF’s indiscriminate targeting of children even younger than us in Palestine,” he said, according to the Yale Daily News.
The Endowment Justice Collective connected several political issues into one, explaining what they saw as the serious mistake made by the investment committee.
The group wrote on Instagram:
While Palantir enables ICE’s terror and extreme cruelty, military weapons are turned against Palestinians, and Trump conspires with the oil oligarchy to assault Venezuela’s sovereignty, Yale once again places its billions before its mission to improve the world through education, preservation, and practice.
“In 2026, we won’t stop fighting to win divestment from the industries deporting our neighbors, destroying our climate, and arming genocide,” the group promised.
The decision not to recommend divestment occurred on “[t]he same day ICE murder[ed] Renee Good in MN,” referring to the liberal activist who hit an ICE agent with her car and ultimately was shot and killed.
“While Trump bombs Venezuela to steal its oil, Yale refuses to divest from liquid natural gas,” the group also posted on Instagram.
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