Investment policy gets a facelift

Drew University’s campus now has a Socially Responsible Investment Committee directed toward aiding the board of trustees in making socially responsible investment choices and distancing the school from environmentally detrimental companies and organizations.

Alan Kantz (’10), a co-chair of the committee, said, "We had a committee of students who were all [Students for a Democratic Society] members and they negotiated with President Weisbuch and with the trustees. This process took about a year—it started in December 2008."

The SRIC’s first meeting was in last December. So far, they have had two meetings.

Kantz said, "We have met with the UN to talk about possibly joining the UN Principles of Responsible Investment, which is an international initiative so that big universities like Drew University can cooperate with one another in how they accomplish responsible investment."

In the 1980s, the school divested from companies financially involved in Apartheid. "[The companies’] money went to banks that loaned money to institutions that supported Apartheid.

"Later on, the school also divested from companies that extracted oil from Sudan and used the money for evil purposes," said Kantz.

Ellen Taraschi (’12), another co-chair, said, "[SRIC] initially was a push for divestment from companies that are doing environmentally terrible things. Now the goals are larger."

One of the goals includes creating the Revolving Green Fund, which is "a fund that would take a chunk of money and invest in energy-saving projects on campus. Some of the cost saves would go back into the endowment in order to sponsor other projects," Kantz said.

One can easily become a member of the SRIC.

Taraschi said, "There is a distinction between voting members and non-voting members. Non-voting members help out with research and it is a great opportunity to get involved.

"Voting members have minimum terms of service—it’s a bigger commitment."

Graduate student representative Patrice Reyes (’11) is in charge of helping the sub-committees choose the issues they target.

"One of the committee members approached me about it. I met with Alan and Ellen and other members of the committee and started it off then," Reyes said.

Taraschi explained that the SRIC does not have a single faculty advisor because some members are faculty.

"There are two CLA professors, one Theo professor, three CLA students, one graduate student, staff, administration…and notably Heath McLendon is a voting member in the committee."

According to Kantz, "The real long-term goal is to make sure that the Drew community can be comfortable with every dollar they have in their endowment.

Kantz added one of the big purposes of the committee is to look at our endowment and make sure that we are not invested in anything that would hurt the school’s reputation."