University Business - July 2007 - (Page 61)

cide is an exception to this, he adds, out of the realm of Asian sweatshops—another socially charged issue on U.S. campuses. “There isn’t anybody who’s going to take the case that genocide is good,” he says. Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, the University of Illinois system, and Wheaton College (Mass.) are among the institutions that have announced they will no longer invest in companies that do business with the Sudanese government. But not every school decided to change policy after the protests. The University of Chicago, with an endowment valued at $4.86 billion last year, said in a February statement that it would stick to its “long-standing practice of not taking explicit positions on social and political issues that do not have a direct bearing on the university.” “I understand that the decision not to divest will be a disappointment to some, especially to the students who have given great time, thought, and energy to their proposal,” University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer said in a statement announcing the decision. “At the same time, the campus deliberations on this topic have reaffirmed for me the extraordinary value in our university’s commitment to engaging the broadest range of perspectives.” But he said the board “shared the widely held view that the university should seek to identify means to contribute to greater understanding of the conflict in Sudan in ways consonant with the university’s mission, with the hope of adding value to ongoing efforts to end this international crisis.” Zimmer said he had established a $200,000 fund to support faculty and student work and activities on those issues. anyone not donating due to the previous neutral policy. Eldhart says he figures CU investment policies matter to about 20 percent of the endowment cases and may be a strong issue in about 10 percent. “Not a lot of people are thinking about that when they’re donating,” he says, whether to the University of Colorado or to any university or college. A Goldman Sachs Global Marketing Institution survey in January 2005 that looked at public perceptions of university endowments showed most donors (70 percent) see yielding the highest possible return as the top priority. Sixty-four percent of those surveyed said avoiding investments that are out of step with a university’s values is a top or high priority, and 44 percent said it was a high or top priority that investments were socially responsible, such as environment-friendly. “That suggests that people think it’s important, but the bottom line is the bottom line,” says Bass from CASE. But he thinks the “socially responsible investor” is changing. It’s not as simple as in the old model, in which an investor would try to avoid tobacco or oil companies or lean toward green companies. Investors are perking up to more issues and taking more of an ownership approach to the companies. “It’s a ‘we’ll pay attention to what you’re investing in [attitude],’” Bass says. Administrators at Rockhurst University (Mo.) understand donors want to know the institution’s core values haven’t changed. Making the Grade Seventy-five percent of those surveyed in the Goldman Sachs study said university endowments should only invest in funds that disclose which companies they invest in, because endowment donors deserve to know how their donations are being invested, while 21 percent said university endowments should have the freedom to invest in funds that do not disclose which companies they invest in, such as hedge funds, because those funds might have Do Donors Care? Whether donors or potential donors see the new University of Colorado divestment policy as a positive move is not clear— neither Bittman nor Eldhart has heard of higher returns than other investments. The 2006 National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) Endowment Study said 72 percent of colleges and universities do not consider socially responsible issues specifically in their investments. Some higher ed foundation managers say it’s not easy, particularly for universities and colleges with smaller endowments and staffs, to keep a constant track of what companies are in the investment portfolios. But some institutions have created socially responsible advisory boards, which are typically comprised of university staff, students, and alumni. At Hampshire College (Mass.), the universitybusiness.com July 2007 | 61 http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - July 2007

Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
People Watch
Sense of Place
Marketing
Viewpoint
Human Resources
Money Matters
Financial Aid
Community Colleges
Seeds of Scandal
Controlling the Flow
Special Delivery
Presidential Progress
Best Foot Forward: SOX and Financial Standards
Business Technology
What's New
Calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - July 2007