WATERVILLE — Trustees at Maine’s Colby College have decided not to stop investing endowment money in oil, gas and other companies connected to fossil fuels, but students say they’ll continue trying to build support for the move.

Students asked the board’s investment committee to consider divesting investments in companies they say contribute to global warming. The committee ultimately decided that doing so didn’t meet the college’s standard that divestment with regard to political or social movements should take place only under the most exceptional circumstances, a spokeswoman said.

Maravilla Clemens, who just finished her freshman year, said she and other students hope to show that climate change is one of the biggest issues facing her generation, but she also commended the college for the time it spent considering the request. Clemens was founder and co-president of Colby Alliance for Renewable Energy, a student group with about 50 members.

“The board of trustees only meets for about six hours a year, and they spent 90 minutes discussing divestment,” she told the Morning Sentinel. “We’re looking at that as a good sign.”

Student activists at more than 200 colleges nationwide have asked their schools to stop investing in fossil fuel companies. Five schools, including Maine’s Unity College and College of the Atlantic, have voted to divest.

Colby President William Adams said the link between divestment and global warming has yet to be fully made.

“I understand the strong feelings the students have about the risks of global warming,” Adams said. “I have them too. What’s not clear is how this divestment movement will affect the issue of global warming.”

The college says it’s been an environmental leader over time and became carbon neutral earlier this year through a combination of minimizing greenhouse emissions and using carbon offsets to mitigate the remaining emissions. School officials say Colby is one of only four colleges nationwide to achieve carbon neutrality.