Location: Sayles 253
Time: 12:00 pm
Present Fred Rogers, Shannon Shulz, David Lefkowitz, Mike Hemesath, Eilidh Higgins, Nora Mahlberg, Alex Persaud, Nathaniel Rosenblum, Cristina Sainati
Absent David Schlosser
Secretary: Laura Garlock
Tuesday’s meeting began with Eilidh Higgins’ report on the Responsible Endowment Coalition conference she attended in Philadelphia. Here she met with other colleges’ responsible investment committees, many of which are relatively new and focused on proxy ballots like CRIC. Some committees, such as the University of Pennsylvania’s, have worked on reinvesting in the improvement of their surrounding areas, which is something CRIC could look into. Columbia and Yale seem to be the leaders in responsible investment committees. Eilidh will write a paragraph about the conference and post it on CRIC’s website.
For this meeting, each member researched a group of shareholdings on EthVest and brought up cases for which CRIC could make recommendations. Topics that came up frequently were executive compensation, healthcare reform, sustainability, political contributions, and internet censorship. However, most of the resolutions now available on EthVest are from 2008, so they have already been voted on or will be voted on soon. 2009 resolutions are beginning to appear, so the committee members will continue to check for new resolutions until the next meeting and once again report their findings.
St. Olaf recently made an ethical decision not to give away money it received from donations or tuition payments to non-profit organizations. The college’s reasoning was that it did not have the right to give away gifts intended for college. CRIC discussed whether or not this would be wise for Carleton to do. Most members thought that while saving money for the college would be beneficial, investing in the community is a high priority and is not a great financial strain on the college. No action was proposed.
CRIC would like to set up either a COLLAB folder or Moodle site in which each member can deposit resolutions and other documents rather than using email. The committee also discussed creating a spreadsheet of Carleton’s shareholdings which members could check off as they find resolutions.
Cristina made a poster with CRIC’s information to post around campus and Northfield. Next meeting, the committee will discuss community involvement further. There may also be a sub-committee meeting to discuss student outreach.