BOSTON – The largely student-led movement at many Boston area colleges urging their schools to divest from fossil fuel companies is getting a boost from faculty.

Faculty members at Harvard University, Boston University, Boston College, Tufts University, and Brandeis University have written open letters, formed groups, or joined student movements to call on administrators at their respective institutions to divest from companies that produce coal, oil and gas, blamed for climate change.

The professors are holding educational talks about climate change or participating in other events designed to raise awareness.

Julian Agyeman, a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts, tells The Boston Globe that many faculty members there who support the movement are veterans of the campaigns to divest from South Africa in the 1970s and ’80s.