Stanford School Acceptance of Fossil Fuel Funds Undermines Partnerships with Communities

Being christened the ‘School of Sustainability’ hasn’t stopped Stanford University Administrators in its billion-dollar flagship Doerr School from accepting research funding from fossil fuel companies. Data collected by the Coalition for a True School of Sustainability shows Stanford takes money from ConocoPhillips, Exxon, Shell, and Chevron. Now, an internal review committee is poised to release a report examining the matter. Their conclusion should be clear: Stanford should immediately stop accepting research funding from fossil fuel companies and divest its endowment of such companies, placing strict guardrails on where, when, and how to accept research funding from any industry. Alumni, students, partners and anyone concerned with a just and sustainable future should continue to place pressure on the University to achieve these ends. Walking arm in arm with the four horsemen of the climate apocalypse will only jeopardize the trust the University has built in local communities affected by environmental injustices. 

This is especially true in East Palo Alto, the redlined neighborhood of Belle Haven in Menlo Park, and the unincorporated community of North Fair Oaks, places that have long subsidized the University’s existence through cheap service labor that keeps it operable, substandard housing that facilitates the underpayment of workers and graduate students, and more recently, an accessible pool of subjects for studying the largely self-manufactured impacts of redlining and racialized zoning practices. As a result of a consistent and concerted effort across multiple university departments, that picture is changing, unlocking the potential for truly transformational local action.

The coalition of 8 BIPOC led and serving community-based organizations who are signatories to this opinion have developed strong working relationships with Stanford, forging mutually beneficial partnerships that leverage our respective resources to begin repairing historical harms for a more just future on the Peninsula. For example, Stanford resources have been leveraged to provide disaster preparedness education and emergency kits to hundreds of North Fair Oaks and Belle Haven residents, air purifiers for more than 200 local families, and advocate for equitable and safe drinking water and housing justice. Countless Stanford students and researchers have volunteered their time and expertise to add additional capacity to small non-profit organizations, an invaluable resource in a chronically understaffed field. 

These blossoming partnerships have not sprouted overnight – the seeds of trust have been diligently watered by caring professors and administrators. University officials at the Haas Center for Public Service, the Office of Community Engagement, and professors inside and outside the Doerr School have been showing up, often physically, bringing resources, expertise, and people power to the most pressing issues local communities face, fostering community control and leadership at every step. In partnering with Stanford, our community organizations have staked their reputation and community trust to the university.

To be clear, we are thrilled to do so: we recognize the truly awesome potential of this collaboration. But our communities will always come first and that commitment brings a responsibility to hold our partners accountable. Failure to do so will undermine and fracture community trust, the hard work of countless university representatives, and jeopardize the validity of its own research– all for a relative pittance the university doesn’t even need.

Therein lies the root of the problem and its ultimate solution: Stanford remains gripped in an unwarranted austerity mindset, having pitched discussions and internal debates, enlisting committees, chairpeople, and rules of order to grapple with the moral quandary of accepting what amounts to pennies. There are a million prudent reasons administrators will offer to explain the need to supplement the $36.5 billion dollar endowment – none are capable of answering fundamental questions about the ethics of hoarding monumental wealth in an era defined by shocking inequality. If Stanford directly invested fossil fuel money in the communities around them bearing the consequences of the climate crisis, it might be more defensible to accept that money. That is not the case. 

The central arguments for accepting research funding from fossil fuel companies are based on a fallacious austerity mindset: Stanford has more than enough money to fund the research that makes it a world-historical force, provide all of its workers excellent wages, fully finance the education of its students, and invest transformatively in the communities it relies on– all without accepting completely marginal sources of funding. 

Residents of East Palo Alto, Belle Haven, North Fair Oaks, and the community organizations that fight alongside them recognize the incongruity of a university offering invaluable resources yet withholding so much more. Breaking free of self-imposed penny pinching will create strong relationships of trust with community organizations, unleashing truly liberatory resources to drastically improve the livelihoods of the Bay Area’s most vulnerable residents and distinguish the university as a leader among peers. Stanford has made incredible strides in community engagement; it would be a shame to compromise its long-sought and hard earned trust for money it simply does not need. 

Climate Resilient Communities Authors:

• Cade Cannedy is the Director of Programs at Climate Resilient Communities, Stanford University Class of ‘20, ‘21

• Violet Saena, Founder and Executive Director of Climate Resilient Communities, Peter and Mimi Haas 2024 Distinguished Visitor at Stanford University

  
  

Community Signatories:

• Cecilia Taylor, Executive Director, Belle Haven Action & Stanford Haas Center Distinguished Visitor

• Pam D Jones, Executive Director, Belle Haven Empowered

• Ever Rodriguez, Executive Director, North Fair Oaks Community Alliance

• Ofelia Bello, Executive Director, Youth United for Community Action

• Tiffany Hautau, Executive Director, ‘Anamatangi Polynesian Voices

• Julio Garcia, Executive Director, Rise South City

• Ana Avendano, Executive Director, El Concilio of San Mateo County