Location: Upper Sayles

Time: 3:30 pm

Present Amanda Savitt, David Tompkins, Divya Sabanayagam, Fadi Hakim, Fred Rogers, Joe Concannon, Amanda Savitt.

Absent Christopher Clark, David Schlosser, Joel Weisberg, Vivaan Misra

Secretary: Claire Milsted

CRIC Minutes for 4/1/2011

Proposing a change to the investment policy

We know that Stanford, Hampshire College, and the University of Pennsylvania have language about socially responsible investment written into their investment policies.   This could be a good option for Carleton.

Another issue is the fact that we can only vote on resolutions that are filed very early (before the end of our spring break.)  Perhaps we could set up a system where we do not have to go through the winter trustees’ meeting.

Two handouts were passed out.  One was a copy of the current investment policy; another was an article about SRI principles and risk management.

We are not sure as to how to go about proposing these changes; we need to make sure that the language isn’t too limiting for the investment committee and won’t hurt our financial interest.  We would have to make it clear that the intent isn’t to prevent decisions based on fiduciary responsibility, only to take into account ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) principles.  Vagueness is also an issue; ESG principles are difficult to clearly define.

It probably won’t be possible to get any change ratified before next year, since the trustees’ meeting in May is too soon and probably too busy.

Kristen will email Wally Weitz and ask if he or any other members of the investment committee would be available for a brief meeting to discuss these options.

Survey

Perhaps we should make a revised version of last year’s survey.  We want more specific information, but we don’t want to make the survey too long.

Getting more people to fill the survey out is important.  We probably won’t get permission for a mass email, but we could do more aggressive tabling at Sayles.  We could also send them through campus mail.

Informing people about CRIC

The survey would provide a limited opportunity to inform people about CRIC.  Perhaps our table at Sayles or our mailings could contain more information.  However, we do not want to overwhelm people with information because that might make them not take the survey.  Perhaps our website is a better forum for such information.

New Student Members

CSA is in charge of deciding which students get to join CRIC, but in the past they have listened to our advice.  We should contact them about the upcoming process.

Dan Apfel

Dan Apfel is the Executive Director of REC.  Kristen and Fadi met him at the recent REC conference in New York City, and we recently learned that he is coming to speak at Macalaster.  Perhaps we could have him come speak to the CRIC; we would need money for the fee but because he would be dovetailing his visit to us with his visit to Macalaster, it would cost us less.

Shareholder meetings

3M has a shareholder meeting on May 10th.  We are proxy-voting for a resolution at regarding political contributions, and the filers of that resolution would like us to come to the meeting and share our views.  We just represent the CRIC, not the school as a whole, but we could discuss our college’s proxy vote on the political contributions resolution and the rationale behind it.