SUNY New Paltz Faculty Senate passed a resolution on Dec. 3, co-authored by Scott Minkoff and Brian Obach, that calls for the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) to end their investments into the fossil fuel industry. SUNY New Paltz is a large client of TIAA.
“How can we be against climate change while at the same time sponsoring the fossil fuel industry through our retirement funds?” said sociology professor Obach.
The financial services organization serves over 15,000 varying institutions with over $1 trillion in assets. This resolution comes as a part of a larger movement led by TIAA Divest!
More information from TIAA Divest! and the resolution here:
This is so important, thanks for covering it! SUNY New Paltz faculty have truly led the way to push TIAA to divest from fossil fuels and from deforestation. TIAA is the financial giant which invests ALL of the SUNY faculty’s pension funds — over 40,000 people in the SUNY system — but mis-uses that money by investing it in climate destruction. Some TIAA holdings also contribute to human rights abuses and inequity. A powerful article lays that out here: https://nffc.net/tiaas-roger-ferguson-wants-to-be-treasury-secretary/ I do have one request! Could you please rewrite this headline (without breaking the link, if that’s possible) to be accurate? The Resolutions pressed for TIAA to divest from fossil fuels and deforestation… not the state pension funds. So, TIAA should be in the headline, not state pension funds (that’s a separate story which broke the same week: big news that New York State pension funds will fully divest from fossil fuels, yay!!). Thanks, accuracy is key. Again, thanks for covering this news with a good story. It may be the first but it won’t be the last.