Should colleges divest from coal, oil?

No. Coal and oil are vital, practical sources of energy. And there are literally millions of things that are made from oil, many of which are vital for the operation on a university. Think of all the plastic that's absolutely necessary to conduct biomedical research: we can't use glass or pyrex in our lab because the safety risks are too great (we work with pathogens you have heard of and definitely do not want). Think also of what it takes to feed everyone on a campus of 50,000 people, keep them warm, etc. You can't do that without oil, natural gas and coal.

Also, look at how these fuels make the human environment cleaner: it takes energy to filter water to make it safe to drink. It takes energy to vacuum the floor to keep the room you're in from filling up waist-high with dust mites and dead skin cells. It takes energy to construct buildings to shelter us from natural, harmful solar radiation. It takes loads of energy to store and cook food free from naturally-occuring and carcinogenic mold (especially aflatoxins) and soot (primitive peoples cook their food over open fires - if they'd get a lot more cancer if they didn't die early so much from other causes).

It's true that the use of oil is an important ethical question. What isn't true is the conventional answer given by environmentalists. Since the purpose of ethics is to guide man so that he may enjoy himself and live, the answer to whether we should use oil or not is a resounding yes.

And if it's right to use oil and coal, as I've shown, it's also right for companies to do it, and for universities to invest their money in oil stocks.