University-wide Socially Responsible Investing Course Explores Ways to Align Social Values with Finances
During the winter semester, 70 New Schoolers attended the University Lecture Course Socially Responsible Investing to deepen their understanding of the American financial system and ways it could be used to effect social change and promote corporate responsibility. Designed to answer questions surrounding the university endowment, the tuition-free course was offered to all university students, faculty, and staff. As the class was held over Zoom, participants did not have to stay in New York City during the winter break but could join from wherever they were; attendees logged in from locations as diverse as South Korea, India, and Mexico. Led by Teresa Ghilarducci, chair of the Economics department and the Irene and Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of Economics and Policy Analysis at The New School for Social Research, the intensive course crammed a full semester’s content into two weeks, with participants attending class for four hours, five days each week.
“Teaching this course was so rewarding because students self-selected and took the course for no other reason than that they were interested. It wasn’t a requirement for their degree or part of a curriculum, and they came in with burning questions,” said Ghilarducci.
The course was designed to address the concerns and questions many in the university community had about The New School’s endowment, which had led to protests. It was aimed at demystifying the American financial system and the investment process and revealing ways to reconcile social values with investment.
The class had several guest faculty and speakers including President Joel Towers who is also University Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design. “I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours with Teresa and her students on the first day of the class,” Towers said. “Our discussion was nuanced, respectful, and afforded the kind of time to delve into issues around investing and endowments that are hard to explore in the rhythms of everyday life at The New School. This class was a great opportunity to go deeper in the best traditions of learning and research.”
“This was a knowledge-based class, but the intent was empowerment. Most people find the financial system intimidating, and the energy and confidence just drain out of people. I wanted participants to leave not only knowing answers to questions but feeling empowered to know what kinds of questions to ask. There was a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding divestment, although the moral issues still remain. That’s something much bigger than this course,” said Ghilarducci.
Although the course was created with the goal of shedding light on financial systems, Ghilarducci realized that there was a need to address personal finance questions that arose. “I found that when we talked about corporate finance, endowments, pension funds, or finance in general, students related the conversations to their own concerns about retirement and their own financial futures. So, like any good teacher, I took advantage of their concerns and made it a teaching moment. Especially in an intensive class like this, connecting the subject to lived experience is key, because then students will learn the subject better. So we went from initial concerns about the social effects of finance to their personal concerns, which were then woven back into the social.”
The course was unusual in that it was university-wide, open to both undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty and staff. “It spanned all the divisions of The New School, and I was able to interact with people from the College of Performing Arts, Parsons, Eugene Lang College, and the Schools of Public Engagement. And although there were 70 participants, students got a chance to meet in small groups in breakout rooms four or five times during a class. It was a unique peer-to-peer interaction: For example, there were PhD Economics students talking with theater professors. The class was able to build a community feeling in just this one course.”