Yesterday, the Sustainable Endowments Institute released the College Sustainability Report Card, an evaluation of campus and endowment activities at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.
Using publicly available information, the institute assessed the schools' sustainability records by conducting surveys of officials and analyzing the schools' performance in nine categories. The average of the equally weighted category grades determined the overall sustainability grade. The highest cumulative mark given out was an A-. Twenty-six institutions received this score and thus garnered the title of "Overall College Sustainability Leaders."
Tufts did not make the cut; it received an overall "B."
Although Tufts did attain high scores for its commitment to sustainability, codified in an official environmental policy and a master plan, the university fell notably short in two particular categories: green building and endowment transparency. The Daily recognizes that Tufts has made progress in creating more environmentally friendly buildings, but we are most concerned about the "D" Tufts received in the endowment transparency category. This grade represents a one-letter drop from last year's already mediocre mark.
The College Sustainability Report Card states, "Tufts makes a list of endowment holdings available only to trustees and senior administrators. Full information on proxy voting is made available only to trustees, senior administrators, and the three student members of the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility." Unfortunately, even this assessment is overly generous: the university gives the students on the advisory committee "very little" access to endowment information, according to senior Gabe Frumkin, a founding member.
The Board of Trustees maintains that "endowment investment decisions are the responsibility of the Trustee Investment Committee," as Executive Vice President Patricia Campbell told the Daily last year. But the board has not deigned to offer any further explanation — we have not been told what economic rationale, if any, the university has for withholding this information. And as we have learned as citizens of the United States — and, for that matter, of the world — when our leaders withhold information, it is almost invariably because they have something to hide.
The Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility's three student members, who make up less than a thousandth of the undergraduate population, are subject to nondisclosure agreements regarding their knowledge of Tufts' endowment activities. All this, even though these members are only given access to a small proportion of Tufts' investments, not including the complicated commingled accounts that often involve stock holdings in businesses with deplorable ethics.
Our low scores in this year's report card beg the question: Is the university using its endowment wisely? If so, why is the lack of transparency necessary?
For a school that prides itself on active citizenship and student engagement, this is a major blemish. Financial transparency would hold administrators accountable for their actions by allowing students and others to give educated input on the decision-making process. The Board should reverse its surreptitious policy so that Tufts can join the list of Overall College Sustainability Leaders. More importantly, the policy should change so that the suits in charge of the university's finances can have a necessary moral checkup as they make the tough decisions that mean so much for the university's future but also have a more subtle impact on the well-being of people and ecosystems around the world.
And if the Board of Trustees is not prepared to trust its students with this knowledge, the least it could do is to offer an explanation. On a college campus, ignorance is not bliss — especially when it comes to one's own endowment. In this case, knowledge is power.
