The college claims it would lose tens of millions of dollars if they went through with it.

The Washington Times reports.

Swarthmore College rejects divesting from fossil fuel

Swarthmore College has dealt a blow to the climate change movement by rejecting calls to divest from fossil fuels, an unexpected move given the college’s status as a birthplace of the college divestment drive.

In a statement, the college’s board of managers cited its fiduciary responsibility in managing the institution’s $1.87 billion endowment, saying that fossil fuel divestment would cost between $10 million and $20 million per year, based on past performance.

“It would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace our current investment managers with ones of similar quality, if we were only to invest in funds that were fossil fuel free,” said the board in a statement after its Saturday meeting.

The prestigious Pennsylvania college’s endowment is “large but it is still finite. If returns were lower we would be facing difficult budget choices,” the statement said.

Divestment supporters were caught off guard, given that the board had agreed to revisit its Sept. 2013 decision against divesting from oil, gas and coal stocks. Students recently held a 32-day campus sit-in protesting the college’s holdings in fossil fuels, while the faculty voted in favor of a resolution recommending divestment.

Swarthmore Mountain Justice, the pro-divestment student group, said in an online posting that the board had come out “on the wrong side of history.”