Third Communication to The New School Community from the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility
As a committee we endeavor to operate with transparency in our work to investigate how the university endowment can better align with our mission and community values. To that end, we took time earlier this summer to reflect on and define the prior Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR) charter and develop guiding documents and principles in order to position ourselves to meet the moment.
Activities: Our recent focus has included identifying and hiring a student research associate to support our work, refreshing the ACIR Charter and establishing a review process for university communications. This includes sharing updates within the community, outlining our communications approval process and maintaining the ACIR website which will serve as a repository of our work and proceedings. These steps were taken to ensure that all future messaging from ACIR is approved by all members of the committee as written and agreed upon.
ACIR Change in Membership and New Co-Chairs: In May 2024 Teresa Ghilarducci was appointed as Chair of the ACIR. However, Teresa has recently stepped down after receiving news that a large grant for the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, which she leads, had been awarded. Members of the ACIR thank Teresa for her leadership at a particularly challenging time for The New School. President Joel Towers, the University Faculty Senate Co-Chairs and Staff Senate Co-Chairs have appointed serving ACIR members to serve as Co-Chairs of ACIR. Jen van der Meer of Parsons School of Design, Strategic Design and Management, and University Faculty Senator and Yasmine Davis, Manager, Restricted Funds Budgeting, and Staff Senator have accepted the roles as Co-Chairs. We wholeheartedly share their enthusiasm for continuing the ACIR’s important work.
New Guiding Documents: We have adopted and ratified a new ACIR Charter that we carefully crafted and updated to reflect the unique circumstances that led to the reconstitution of the ACIR in the first place. This was a critical and fundamental first step that we felt needed to be thoroughly reviewed in order to be able to meet our charge to prepare a report for the Investment Committee (IC) of the Board of Trustees to consider divestment of The New School’s endowment after demands made by members of our community, including multiple governing bodies within the university, on ways to advise on the divestment from military industry and military surveillance companies. To that end, we developed a communications process and project timeline to guide our work.
Student Research Associate: We are pleased to welcome Arya Vaghayenegar, PhD student, Sociology, The New School for Social Research (NSSR), as our student research associate. Arya’s support will be instrumental over the coming months as we prepare a report for consideration by the IC on divestment.
Socially Responsible Investment Course: To broaden and enhance the knowledge about the investment process for members of our community, we will begin offering a free three-credit course in January. The course will be taught by Professor Teresa Ghilarducci. Students, faculty, and staff interested in taking the Socially Responsible Investing course need to sign up through the Google form in the course description.
Timeline: As stated in our previous message, we aim to have a proposal for the IC in time for their next meeting in September. We will expect a response from the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees and a rationale for their decision, whatever the outcome.
Point of clarification on ACIR/IC: We want to remind our community that the ACIR is an independent committee composed of faculty, student and staff representatives chosen by their respective senates, and approved by the President, whereas the Investment Committee is a committee of the Board of Trustees, composed of community members whose objective is to fulfill their fiduciary role in a responsible manner. The IC makes determinations in their capacity as Trustees, charged by law with sole responsibility for preserving and enhancing the university’s endowment with a fiduciary duty of care, duty of loyalty, duty of conflict of interest, and duty to the mission.
We want to hear from you and value your input. Contact the ACIR at ACIR@newschool.edu.
Thank you for your attention and patience as we continue our work.
Sincerely,
Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility
Jen van der Meer, Co-Chair and Faculty Senate Representative
Yasmine Davis, Co-Chair and Staff Senate Representative
Rhea Alexander, Faculty Senate Representative
Paula Ante Wright, Student Senate Representative
Rafael Muñoz, Staff Senate Representative
Leo Ruales, Student Senate Representative
Christopher Castano, Board of Trustees Representative