How Victoria College Divested from Fossil Fuels

This article was written by Sijil Jindani, and is the product of a collaboration between the HUB Librarian (Anglophone) and students in Professor Bonnie McElhinny's fall 2025 course "ANT364: Advocating Climate and Environmental Justice" at the University of Toronto. Many thanks to Sijil and Bonnie for their collaboration on this project.

Introduction

This article discusses Divest Vic, the campaign for fossil fuel divestment at Victoria College, a federated college at the University of Toronto (UofT). The timeline for this campaign begins during the UofT divestment campaign, starting from Fall of 2018. Following several years of campaigning, activists engaged in an 18-day occupation of the Victoria College building (also referred to as Old Vic). The announcement by the university administration to commit to divestment was made on April 13, 2023, after which students left the building.

This case study explores:

• Policy windows and points of entry within university institutions
• How students can approach university institutions and work both within and against them
• How the conditions for escalation are created, using the background of the lengthy UofT divestment campaign that enabled the Vic campaign and occupation
• Strategies for impactful escalation on university campuses, informed by the experiences of organizers and activists involved with the Vic occupation
• Challenges faced in student organizing on campus, and how they can be addressed
• The role of community care and knowledge transfer

Sources used:

• Reports, documents, and statements made by the campaign organizers
• Public documents, meeting minutes, statements, and press releases by Victoria College
• News and media coverage
• Most of the news coverage relates to the occupation of Old Vic
• Many reports by student newspapers, especially The Varsity and The Strand
• Interviews with 3 anonymous campaign participants. Interview quotes have been edited for clarity.
• Existing Climate Justice Organizing Hub (CJOH) wiki articles

Background: Divestment at UofT

Divestment from fossil fuels is one of several strategies used by the climate justice movement to advance its goals. These campaigns became widespread across university campuses in the 2010s.

At the University of Toronto, the campaign for fossil fuel divestment lasted over a decade. It began with the formation of Toronto350 and its campus branch UofT350 in June 2012, with a “re-launch” of the campaign occurring after the formation of LeapUofT in the fall of 2016. LeapUofT was formed a few months after Meric Gertler, the UofT president at the time, rejected fossil fuel divestment, against the recommendation of his advisory committee. Leap began supporting divestment campaigns of the university’s federated colleges, including Victoria College.

After almost a decade of student activism, Gertler announced the decision to divest the UofT endowment on October 27, 2021. A comprehensive summary of the University of Toronto campaign, as well as insights about the movement and the divestment decision, can be found in this working paper by Amanda Harvey-Sanchez, this article by Harvey-Sanchez and Sydney Lang, and through the Divestment Generation podcast miniseries.

UofT’s commitment to divest did not apply to the federated colleges. UofT has 7 undergraduate colleges, 3 of which (Victoria, Trinity, and St. Michael’s) are federated. These colleges have their own administration and are governed separately from the larger university. They are technically separate universities, have their own endowments, and are financially independent. As a result, these colleges needed to make their own, separate commitments to divestment.

Within a year of Gertler’s divestment announcement, the campaign to push for divestment at Victoria College became a focus. Vic had between $6 to $9 million in indirect investments in fossil fuels, about 5% of the college’s endowment. Additionally, Vic owned an active oil well in Saskatchewan, bequeathed by an alum.

Impact of the UofT campaign on Divest Vic

The 11-year long campaign targeting UofT set the stage for Divest Vic. The UofT movement increased students’ understanding about the climate crisis and generated support for divestment on campus. According to a Divest Vic organizer, this “set up leverage for our claims to get the federated colleges to divest.” Years of campaigning made divestment a reasonable demand, and UofT’s eventual commitment to divest its endowment entrenched it as an important step towards addressing climate change on campus, thus making it hard for the federated colleges to outright reject. This leverage allowed activists to engage in more severe and disruptive actions.

The UofT campaign’s results and the experiences of its members also provided valuable knowledge and resources for Divest Vic organizers.

• UofT campaign participants interviewed for Climate Justice Radio’s Divestment Generation miniseries discussed facing “delays and secrecy” from the university.
• Lang and Harvey-Sanchez state in their 2022 article: “The university benefited from the way we “civilly” and “rationally” played the inside game, and the university’s rejection of divestment in 2016 reveals the risks and consequences of such an approach.”
• The UofT campaign revealed that the university was concerned about a possible sit-in.

Strategy

Targeting Victoria College

Victoria College was targeted early on by LeapUofT out of the 3 federated colleges. According to Divest Vic documents and participants, there were several reasons for this:

• Vic has the largest endowment of the three colleges and is believed to have more influence. Organizers hoped that Vic’s divestment would provide “more incentive for the other colleges to do it.”
  • The remaining 2 federated colleges announced their divestment decisions within a few months of Vic.
• The Board of Regents at Vic has student representation. 4 students are elected from the student body, which CJUofT was able to take advantage of by getting their members elected. Although the votes of these students did not have any real effect on BoR decisions, it improved the organizers’ access to information. According to one participant, the BoR made it “much easier to have that kind of transparency…and be in the know. It was easier for CJUofT to be aware of what was happening.”
• A new university President, Dr. Rhonda McEwen, had recently been appointed at Vic around the same time as the campaign was picking up. This was a factor in both choosing to target Vic and choosing to escalate, as this was seen as an advantage to the campaign.
  • A campaign document stated: “In April 2022, Dr. Rhonda McEwen was named the new president and vice-chancellor of Victoria University
    • LEVERAGE POINT - As a new president, she is trying to find her footing and build her legacy; presiding over the divestment of Vic’s endowment could cement her legacy as a “climate leader” and favorably position Vic in the eyes of many students.”

The location for the occupation (Old Vic building) was also chosen strategically.

• As reported in The Varsity, “At around 10:00 am on March 27, members of Climate Justice UofT arrived at Old Vic. Erin Mackey, a fourth-year political science and environmental studies major and the press contact for Climate Justice UofT, told The Varsity that the club chose Old Vic for the protest because it is a very public space. She said the organization wants to ensure everyone at the college knows about the demonstration.”
• Old Vic has admin and faculty offices, classrooms, a cafe, and event spaces. One participant interviewed for this article pointed out that meetings and visits with donors and prominent alumni take place at Old Vic. Students camping out and disrupting the use of this space would impact the image of the university.

Mixture of Tactics

The debate about working within or against the institution persisted throughout the UofT divestment campaign. Lang and Harvey-Sanchez discussed in their article how the initial approach of the campaign was “following the rules and expecting to be rewarded,” which created conflict when some participants preferred to use mobilizing methods that could harm the campaign’s reputation and relationship with the university. They suggest a more effective approach of working inside the institution is “knowing the rules and leveraging them to your advantage,” which organizers began to more effectively do following Gertler’s 2016 rejection of divestment. This involved having members in internal meetings and engaging in dialogue with the university, while also having people mobilizing and engaging in more disruptive action, with effective communication between the two.

Divest Vic used a similar approach, but escalated further. One campaign member stated: “I was able to learn that direct action is needed within movements. We need a diversity of tactics, whether you're working within the system or outside the system, everyone has a role within the movement.”

Working within the University

Divest Vic organizers spent several years cooperating with administrators and going through the university’s channels. There was an effort to understand policies and entry points and create support within the governing bodies.

Getting campaign members elected to the BoR and VUSAC made it easier to:

• Bring divestment demands directly to university administration
• Push for divestment discussions in official BoR meetings and town halls with both students and admin present, where admin would publicly endorse divestment
• Establish connections with Vic student organizations
• Gain access to information that helped when planning protest actions
  • Knowing about BoR meeting agendas in advance informed the decision to protest a during meeting in February
  • Knowing about BoR members' views helped “in forming our campaign…it was really good for gauging how angry folks in there were.”
• Student efforts in 2021 led to the BoR asking 2 of its supporting organizations, “the Property Committee and the Investment Committee to consider the question of divestment and separately produce a report advising whether Victoria College should divest by February 2023.”
• Student advocacy on the BoR pushed them to allow a student to join the Investment Committee for the 2022/23 academic year.
• The final decision to occupy Old Vic and the timing of the occupation were based on information provided by BoR members.
• Organizers decided to escalate when it was understood that the reports would not be publicized, and after communications with admin were not yielding results or satisfactory responses. Organizers were concerned about this lack of transparency and about a potential vote against divestment in the coming months, which would “set it back for a really long time.” They believed this was an emergency situation and they needed to increase pressure on the college to avoid this setback.

This kind of background work is important to ensure that disruptive action is actually helpful to the cause or even possible to do in the first place. Disruptive actions, especially against an institution like a university which has direct power over students, can be costly. Students are risking their reputation and position within the university and community. Occupying a building is also more physically difficult and requires a greater time commitment. Before asking people to do this, campaign organizers might benefit from making sure that the action is not premature and will not be counter-productive.

Occupation

Demands and Results

The demands of the Vic occupation were set out in the official Welcome Document:

• “We are demanding that Victoria College DIVEST from fossil fuels. This divestment must be FULL, TRANSPARENT, and TIMELY.
  • Full: We demand divestment from all investments in fossil fuel companies, regardless of whether they are held directly or in pooled funds.
  • Transparent: Including students and community members in the divestment process through regular town halls and consultations with students and community members. This also includes annual reports outlining Victoria College’s progress on achieving its divestment commitments.
  • Timely: Fully sell all of Victoria College’s investments in fossil fuel companies within two years.”

These demands were partially met.

• Victoria College did commit to complete divestment.
• There is minimal improvement in transparency and accountability. The BoR published an update on divestment in June 2024 and committed to annual updates, but has not published any since. McEwen discussed divestment progress in an interview with the Strand in November 2024. Divestment has come up at BoR meetings, but dedicated town halls and consultations have not taken place.
• Victoria College committed to divestment by 2030 rather than within 2 years.

Divestment Announcement

The official press release announcing Vic’s divestment decision made passing reference to students “who have been advocating for this issue for many years,” but did not mention the ongoing encampment and largely focused on the work of the Board of Regents since 2018. An earlier statement by McEwen emphasized the “importance of due diligence and process” and stated that “progress is often not as fast as we would like.” However, the divestment announcement was made during the encampment, less than 3 weeks after it began, which indicates that processes that might not normally be fast can be sped up through disruptive actions. The encampment dispersed after the divestment announcement.

Campaign organizers have different opinions on the direct impact of the occupation:

• One participant believed that divestment would have happened regardless if the BoR’s process had played out.
• Another stated, “I think 95% of the reason why they divested was because of the direct action.”

Campaign participants tend to agree that the occupation threatened Vic’s reputation, accelerating the conditions needed for divestment. The act of taking up space was significant, because events had to be relocated and important meetings were impacted.

• One participant recounted how they “woke up to people walking over my head…someone important, like a donor came, and obviously it’s not a good look if there are a bunch of tents and a bunch of kids sleeping on the floor all around your college.”
• In addition to scrutiny from potential donors, the occupation received media attention.
• All of this was occurring during McEwen’s first year as President, after she had publicly stated her intentions to support divestment.
• The organizers suggested that the occupation left the college with limited options. Their earlier commitments to work with students on the divestment issue prevented them from outright rejecting the demands without further damaging their reputation. They likely had to act a lot faster than they would have preferred to.

Other impacts:

• Increased organizing capacity and knowledge transfer for future student movements.
• The other federated colleges committed to divestment soon after, and Trinity *College has been the first to successfully divest.
• The UofT School of the Environment cut ties with fossil fuel funding.

It is important to keep in mind that the successes of the occupation happened under circumstances that already favoured divestment. Without the UofT divestment precedent and the BoR’s existing work looking into possible divestment, the occupation’s outcome may not have been as productive. Student activists should be aware of the social climate of their institutions and the views/plans of their administrators when planning actions.

Reflections on Strategy

Challenges of the Occupation

• Students camping out experienced burnout and exhaustion. The occupation was near the end of the semester so many students had final assignments and exams approaching.
• People were dissatisfied with the decision making process, which was concentrated within a small group of people.
  • These were mainly older students who had already been involved with CJUofT and the Divest Vic campaign, and had made the initial decision to escalate.
  • Younger and newer participants were sidelined and not everyone was given access to information because some organizers were concerned about security and leaks.
  • One participant believes that while this decision making structure would not have lasted long term, “it worked for the Vic occupation because it was so drastic, and it was by that point the longest encampment in all of Canada.” This type of disruptive action was a new experience for most of the younger students, and “there was just a concentration of knowledge within those [older] people…” who had done organizing in the past and were more familiar with divestment.
  • The dissatisfaction and conflict created because of this concern led CJUofT to re-structure the following summer and develop more democratic decision making.
• Access to information and decision making authority sometimes reinforced existing societal power imbalances. This included the sidelining of racialized participants’ perspectives and contributions and the creation of inner circles that excluded students who did not live near the university campus or within downtown Toronto - which often tends to be lower income students commuting from surrounding suburbs.
• A major long term challenge after the occupation ended was holding the college accountable and increasing transparency during the divestment progress, which was one of the initial demands of the campaign.
  • One participant believes that this was partially due to people’s grievances during the occupation, which affected the momentum and level of commitment to this particular campaign.
  • Most participants began focusing on other campaigns within CJUofT, such as Fossil Free Research or Banks off Campus.

The Role of Community Care

Interviews with campaign participants all highlighted the importance of interpersonal and community support during the occupation.

• Students camping out at Old Vic formed strong friendships
• Students worked collaboratively on each others’ assignments to alleviate stress and workload for each individual
• Students with residence meal plans bought food for other occupiers
• Student organizations held events at Old Vic to express support and increase awareness of the cause
• Professors held their classes in Old Vic, which helped the occupation take up more space, further disrupted the college, and likely improved the credibility of the cause
• Professors gave students extensions on assignments, excused absences, and allowed students to use their classes as a platform to promote the occupation

The sense of community and friendship that the occupation fostered was cited as the main way students combatted the burnout and exhaustion that came with camping out. This was a major reason the campaign retained support, even after the occupation ended. This was in spite of general dissatisfaction by most students with the hierarchical structure of the occupation and the centralization of decision making power within a few select individuals.

Knowledge Transfer and Institutional Memory

The Divest Vic campaign faced issues with effective transfer of knowledge from the UofT campaign, according to statements by participants and evidenced by the parallel challenges experienced during both campaigns.

• Knowledge transfer was impacted by the pandemic.
• More generally, maintaining momentum and passing along essential knowledge and skills in student movements is impacted by student turnover.
• To sustain movements, new activists need to be trained and need to be aware of the experiences of their predecessors. Campus organizations need to build institutional memory. One interview participant emphasized that Divest Vic struggled with this and the organization’s ability to record and archive information still needs improvement.
• There has been a great deal of progress made. An important achievement of Divest Vic was its impact on the People’s Circle for Palestine, an encampment occurring during the summer of 2024. Interview participants emphasized how much the experiences of the former helped organize and sustain the latter by:
  • Establishing a long standing activist organization on campus that is able to rally students when necessary
  • Providing resources, training, and experience to newer activists
  • Creating a fairly recent precedent of occupation/escalation tactics at UofT
  • Enabling direct consultation/coordination between leaders of Divest Vic with organizers of the encampment