Despite the fact that it does not yet have all of its members, the University’s Committee for Investor Responsibility (CIR) is now active. The development of the CIR is meant to allow students, staff, faculty, and alumni to influence where the University invests its money, but currently it only includes students. The Committee was approved by President Roth in February as a replacement for the now-defunct Endowment Advisory Committee (EAC), and it is still searching for its final members.
The five student members were appointed to the CIR over a month ago. Jen Liebschutz ’11, who is the chair of the Wesleyan Student Assembly’s Committee for Finances and Facilities (FiFac), chairs the CIR; other members include Anand Gopalan ’09, Kathy Stavis ’10, Aubrey Hamilton ’12, and Alexa Atamanchuk ’12. In addition to Wesleyan students, the CIR will soon include two faculty members chosen by the dean of the faculty, two staff appointed by the Vice President for Finance and Administration, and two alumni selected by University Relations, all of whom will serve on the committee for two years.
“We wanted a broad range of views,” Liebschutz said.
According to Liebschutz and Hamilton, the CIR has been in contact with faculty, staff, and alumni in search of committee members. They hope to have the full committee secured by summer so that it will be in full swing by the start of next semester.
“Hopefully next fall we’ll be working on improving our website, increasing transparency to the Wesleyan community, getting all of our members to meet, and discussing our priorities for the future,” Liebschutz said.
The committee primarily engages in shareholder advocacy. This includes writing letters to corporations, submitting recommendations to the Board of Trustees, and casting proxy votes at shareholder meetings. Proxy voting gives shareholders a voice in a company’s decision-making process. These decisions could include the appointment of certain directors to companies or shareholder regulations.
The CIR has met five times thus far. Currently, the Committee is primarily engaging in background research into companies the University could potentially invest in. Last week, the committee had its first proxy vote. The CIR reviewed approximately thirty decisions being made by companies in which the University has invested money, which were brought in by Gopalan. Among the decisions they voted on were the reduction of animal testing, more transparency in space-based weapons programs, and a new board of directors.
The CIR enables students to have considerably more sway in the University’s investment and divestment decisions. Although other universities, including Stanford, Brown, Grinnell, and Columbia have similar committees to the CIR, their investment offices have the final vote. By contrast, Wesleyan’s CIR submits the final proxy vote. Although it works closely with the CIR, the investment office does not vote.
According to the committee’s proposal, the CIR’s purpose is to “consider issues of ethical, moral, and social responsibility in the investment policies” of the University.
“Right now we’re working on a document outlining what it means to be a responsible investor,” said Gopalan, an intern in the University’s Investment Office and a member of the CIR. The document will contain a code of ethics, as well as guidelines about what to expect as a member of the committee.
The CIR intends to make the University’s financial decisions more transparent to the campus community, and hopes to receive student and faculty input. The proposal states that one of the CIR’s goals is to incorporate “broader representation from the Wesleyan community at large.”
“We definitely want to reflect the views of Wesleyan as much as we can,” said Hamilton. “If Wesleyan students have an opinion, we want to hear it.”
Liebschutz expressed approval for the committee’s progress.
“It’s definitely moving forward,” she said. “I’m optimistic that we’ll increase our shareholder advocacy in the coming years.”