Abstract
This paper seeks to determine whether Boston College’s decision to keep its investments in fossil fuel companies is consistent with the ethical responsibilities of a Jesuit university. A student group that advocates for the university’s divestmenthas had a troubled relationship with the school’s leadership. The main obstacle has been that the divestment group claims that Boston College’s refusal to divest does not align with the ethics to which it subscribes as a Jesuit and Catholic university.This inconsistency is particularly striking as Boston College itself has a historical precedent of divesting from a sector of the economy for moral reasons. The Apartheid divestment movement catalyzed the university to develop ethical investment guidelines to ensure that the school’s finances were consistent with its Jesuit mission. Moreover, canon law requires Catholic universities to adhere to Church teaching in all of its commitments and activities. by investing in fossil fuel companies, the University defies the teachings of the encyclical laudato si’, which is an infringement on canon law. This paper is an abridged version of the senior thesis completed for the Perspectives Honors sequence.
Highlights
This paper seeks to determine whether Boston College’s decision to keep its investments in fossil fuel companies is consistent with the ethical responsibilities of a Jesuit university
Many of the guidelines to the advisor. He takes those sanctions were due to holding events or posting flyers on recommendations and decides where to invest, taking into campus without the university’s permission, which cannot account Father Monan’s resolution on investing as well as be granted to unregistered student groups
“Climate Justice at Boston College” (CJBC), before its in light of Apartheid to determine whether a company has acceptance as a registered student organization in the Fall been involved in unethical practices in South Africa.[11] of 2015.3 CJBC is not, the first group to make Smith added that divestment would be used as a final divestment an issue at Boston College
Summary
This paper seeks to determine whether Boston College’s decision to keep its investments in fossil fuel companies is consistent with the ethical responsibilities of a Jesuit university. The Heights published an article in 1981 wherein Financial Vice President and Treasurer John Smith reported that the investment committee had begun to regularly review its portfolio for ethical discrepancies The group, he said, “will choose the proper course of action which could include writing to management, voting proxies, supporting shareholder resolutions or divestment.”[8] In other words, depending on the case, the committee would either attempt to use its shareholder status to leverage a change in a corporation’s practices, or it would choose to sell its stocks and dissociate from the company entirely.
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