When Does Princeton Hold Itself Accountable?

2046? We all know, by then, planetary destruction is a done deal.

With this decision, Princeton has a newly revised interpretation of “dissociation”: separate its investments in fossil fuels from the values espoused by the University and the actual harm they will do to people and planet. The claim that its intellectual mission to innovate to mitigate climate change can somehow proceed while in the real world its investment in fossil fuel companies continues is absurd.

As an alumna I worked with others through Divest Princeton step by baby step to move a reluctant administration toward fossil fuel divestment. We all sighed with some relief when Princeton announced it would align its investments with climate science and “dissociate” from fossil fuel companies. Now, instead, we hear Princo president Vincent Tuohey spewing word salad to justify their abandonment of their modest commitments in order to continue to invest in the destruction of our planet.

Isn’t Princeton doing a great disservice to its students, expecting them to reconcile a disingenuous rationale of short-term financial expediency with what they will face as citizens of a seriously endangered world?

And now a new example of dissociative thinking has surfaced. In 2024, Princeton quietly sold 143 acres of its Princeton Nurseries site for nearly $22 million to WRV Nurseries South Brunswick Owner, LLC, a company that is now building a huge data center there. Some serious rumblings from the local community recently led the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to host a public forum on an air pollution permit that, if approved, would allow among other consequences, pollution from 20 large diesel-fired emergency generators at the site. And what about the water and electricity needs of this new facility?

And Princeton University has nothing to say.

Does this new definition of dissociation from consequences mean Princeton bears no responsibility for the new use of this property given that they sold it to the developer? If Princeton can sidestep the controversy of data center development right in its own backyard, and, dare I suggest, the issue of the dangers of AI as well, simply by selling the property to a private entity, under what circumstance can they be held accountable?