BC students debate investments

Hayley Tsukayama Staff Writer

Transparency has become a full-blown debate at Boston College. Students there are concerned that the College’s $1.35 billion endowment may not be invested in causes that support the school’s founding Jesuit principles.

According to an April 4 Boston Globe article by Jeffery MacDonald, about $276 billion in College endowment money is currently invested in various companies nationwide.

In an article in the April 4 issue of Boston College’s newspaper, The Heights, reporter Evan Hendrich presented the greater BC community with alternatives to the current debate over the transparency of endowment investment. One of these options was to put endowment money into a fund which would provide any organization that wishes to perform community service with the proper funding to do so.

Such a committee, Hendrich pointed out in his article, is not unlike many of Boston College’s peer institutions. Hendrich made reference to Vassar’s Committee for Campus Investor Responsibility, as well as the practices of Harvard and Stanford.

Vassar is one of a handful of private institutions with such a committee to ensure that its money is invested in companies that are both socially responsible and acceptable to the greater Vassar community.

The Committee for Campus Investor Responsibility has two representatives from the student body and two representatives each from the faculty, alumni/ae, and administration.

Director of Investments and Capitol Project Finance for Vassar College Stephen Dahnert said that he discusses the endowment investment with many groups on campus and is currently working with VSA Treasurer Andy Caselli ’05 to “identify a new socially responsible investment fund for the College.”
Dahnert said that he makes himself “available to members of the campus community who wish to discuss the endowment, though I really do not receive many such inquiries.”

Caselli has been researching possible socially responsible investing outlets for the College this year.
“Socially responsible investing (SRI) is a tough issue to wrap one's mind around,” said Caselli. “There certainly is a double-edged sword in every SRI debate. On one hand, the school...has an incentive to promote SRI because alumni factor this into their donations.”

On the other hand, Caselli pointed out, “BC was seeing an astronomical 18.8 percent annual return, and to replace the funds that are making them money with SRI funds is as hard as selling ketchup to a man in a white suit.”

Discussions at Boston College about the endowment are ongoing.