Dissatisfaction persists in the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Diversity, as the group's members hope to square their goal of publicizing more of the Board of Trustees' endowment investments with the Board's view that investments must largely remain private.
But Tufts Community Union (TCU) President Neil DiBiase would like to see the TCU Senate help the parties find common ground. "Hopefully, the Senate will be able to mitigate the miscommunication," he said.
He hopes that a resolution will be brought to the Senate, debated and voted upon. DiBiase thinks there may have been a misunderstanding or miscommunication between the committee and the Board.
"The Senate's role is trying to mediate that. I've talked about it with administrators and they see it as an advisory role, when needed," he said.
Sophomore Gabe Frumkin founded the committee with the goal of giving the Board advisements on proxy resolutions, which include votes on where to invest the endowment. Frumkin also hoped the committee would make knowledge of how Tufts invests its endowments more accessible to the greater university community. Proxy votes are usually not made public.
The committee's overarching goal is to ensure that the endowment is invested responsibly and is not used to support companies that mishandle global issues such as human rights and climate change.
The administration and the Board have countered that much of the endowment's investment must remain unpublicized in order for the Board to effectively manage the university's finances. For instance, University President Lawrence Bacow has said that students do not have a right to know all the details of how the endowment is invested, despite Frumkin's desires.
"It's wrong to think that Tufts should be transparent to students. Our duty is to our donors," Bacow told the Daily.
Frumkin said that the committee should be privy to how all the money in Tufts' endowment is invested. "If there are companies invested in socially or environmentally reprehensible practices, such as those doing business in Sudan, we wouldn't be able to realize that and make proper recommendations to the Board" under the current arrangement, he said. Frumkin mentioned the complex nature of "commingled accounts," a complicated type of investments that are similar to mutual funds.
Tufts' endowment is heavily invested in these types of accounts, which limit how much direct control the university can have over where money is invested.
Tufts moved from 2007's B- rating in the 2008 College Sustainability Report Card to a B+ for 2008. The report was released a few months ago by the Sustainable Endowment Institute. Tufts' C grade in the subcategory of Endowment Transparency is an improvement from its failing mark in 2007, but Frumkin said it leaves room for improvement.
"I think for a university that prides itself on civic engagement and global citizenship, we're still not where we should be," Frumkin said.
Miscommunications about the committee's makeup
The advisory committee was approved by the Board of Trustees last May, at which point it contained 10 members, including undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and alumni. The committee now contains only three undergraduates after the trustees clarified their position that it must not include representatives from other groups.
The trustees also had the three undergraduates sign confidentiality agreements, which disallow them from sharing information about the endowment with other members of the Tufts community.
Frumkin, who had hoped the committee would help provide information to the greater community about how the endowment is invested, said the committee now feels it has been gutted and cannot answer to everyone's needs.
He said that the downsizing affects more than just the size of the committee. "It shrinks our ability to work as well as we would like to, although I still think we're doing a pretty good job," he said. "In a way, it also shrinks our credibility both to the community and to the Board of Trustees."
He added that the smaller size of the committee also makes it easier for the Board to dismiss the committee's recommendations.
A comparison to other colleges
Frumkin acknowledged that full endowment transparency is not a real possibility. He said he is thankful for the progress that has been made. "There are certain things which we can do that were unthinkable a year ago," he said, citing his ability to view stocks to which no students would have had access last year.
Still, other schools such as Harvard University and Swarthmore College openly provide information about their investments on their Web sites. Swarthmore uses social screening and transparency as a mark of the quality of its endowment. Frumkin said this is a realistic goal for Tufts too, although the Board has said that divulging information about investments could damage the overall investment strategy.
Frumkin also pointed to universities with well established advisory committees that have good relations with the investment office and the Board of Trustees. "They make better rates of return than the Tufts endowment," he said.
Karin Chamberlain (F '99) was on the original 10-member committee. "I'm interested in making sure those investments are in line with the mission of Tufts University and don't contradict it. I'd like Tufts to step up to the plate," she said.
Chamberlain said she thought proxy voting was a good first step in the process but was concerned about alumni being removed from the committee. "We do have the right to have a voice in this process," she said.
According to Chamberlain, some Board members are involved in controversial industries like oil that may burden them with conflicts of interest when investing Tufts' funds.
"I think the Board of Trustees [members] at Tufts are all very well-intentioned individuals; no other people have better exhibited their commitment to their Alma Mater. They're nervous, they don't want their endowment to be hurt and they don't want to violate their responsibility to the university," she said.
Frumkin said it is important for Tufts to invest in the companies that return the most money. "On the other hand, the money that supports this education should be earned in globally responsible and appropriate ways," he said. "I think there are certainly funds out there like this."
