The Senate Advisory Committee for University Affairs decided Monday to present a proposal supporting the creation of a University committee to consider divesting from fossil fuel companies.
During the meeting Monday, SACUA voted to present the proposal for consideration at next week’s Senate Assembly meeting.
A similar proposal passed Central Student Government last month.
SACUA Chair Scott Masten, a professor of business economics and public policy, said he opposed bringing the proposal to next week’s Senate Assembly because he did not think SACUA should hold a singular opinion on policy.
“There’s scope for a lot of disagreement,” Masten said. “I think there’s a huge variety of opinion.”
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Prof. John Lehman, SACUA member, said the only natural course of action was to form a coalition between students and faculty to consider the issue.
“What we do is have some type of a task force that engages with the students and see if there is a common ground,” Lehman said. “I don’t have a problem with that, and I feel like there are faculty members who would volunteer.”
Faculty members will consider the proposal at next week’s Senate Assembly meeting.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the nature of the proposal. It is to divest from fossil fuels, not companies allegedly implicit in human rights violations against Palestinians.