ABOUT REC SUMMER ORGANIZING RETREATS

How would you change the world with one million dollars? What about $10 million, $100 million, or $1 billion? Students across the country are standing up to corporate power and demanding control over their universities’ money!

Universities, as major institutional investors, are failing our communities by supporting the financial status quo in higher ed: maximizing profit over all social or environmental considerations; choosing high-risk, high-reward dealings; investing in highly complex financial instruments with little transparency; banking with Wall Street, instead of equally sound local community institutions; and choosing to not engage or influence the corporations in which they’re investing.

Youth are getting together and piece-by-piece, campaign-by-campaign, building an endowment movement. We invite you to join us for a week-long training retreat to develop your endowment knowledge and share strategies from across the movement! Our summer program is perfect for someone new to the responsible investment movement in higher education, or for someone looking to develop a strong campaign plan for next year. There is no previous experience or knowledge required.
WHAT WILL BE COVERED

We will be discussing a number of subjects relevant to today’s student leaders, including -

- Confronting corporate power: corporations and universities
- How to understand your endowment and the responsible investment strategies that can develop alternative economies
- How to be an effective student leader: recruiting, engaging, and organizing your campus
- Analyzing success stories! How has responsible investment impacted workers’ rights; environmental justice issues such as climate change, hydraulic fracturing and mountaintop removal coal mining; corporate contributions and our political system; LGBTQ nondiscrimination; poverty in our local communities; and much more.
WHO SHOULD APPLY?

If you have a passion for social justice and are prepared for an intensive and intimate experience, you have everything you need. The goal of this training is to provide students with all of the knowledge they would need to create change at their university from the ground up. No previous knowledge or experience in finance, organizing, or activism is required.
TWO RETREATS

Northeast Summer Organizing Retreat

Where: Murray Grove Retreat and Renewal Center, Lakona Harbor, NJ. Within two hours of NYC and Philadelphia by car, and also fully accessible to both cities by public transit
When: Sunday evening — Saturday morning, July 28 — August 3, 2013

West Coast Summer Organizing Retreat

Where: Ben Lomond Quaker Center, Ben Lomond, CA. Less than 2 hours south of San Francisco by car, and also accessible by public transit.
When: Saturday evening — Friday morning, August 17 — 23, 2013
COST

The suggested tuition — including food, housing, and staff time for the entire week — varies depending on the number of attendees from your school:
• If you are the only attendee from your school: $300/person
• If you are one of 2 attendees from your school: $210/person
• If you are one of 3 attendees from your school: $160/person

However, we recognize that not everyone is in a position to pay this much or raise this much money. We hope to work with each attendee to pay on a sliding scale whatever they may be able to. Between REC’s scholarship funding and your own fundraising abilities we are committed to making sure that all who wish to attend will be able to. Full and partial scholarships are available and we will also have travel funding available for those who are unable to support their travel. Let’s work together to figure it out!
DEADLINE

Apply using our Google Form. Rolling until spaces are filled! We are currently still accepting applications. The sooner the better.

By KEVIN PROFT/ecoRI News staff

PROVIDENCE — Students from New York to Boston rallied May 3 with Brown Divest Coal activists on Brown University’s main green, demanding that President Christina Paxson and The Corporation of Brown University vote on whether to divest the college’s $2.5 billion endowment from the 15 largest coal companies in the United States during an upcoming May 23 meeting.

Rally organizers provided the 150 attendees with symbolic orange ballots to cast into the “smokestack” of the ballot box, a miniature coal-powered plant made from a cardboard box with a big X on its side.

Before casting their ballots, many students explained why halting climate change mattered to them.

“If we do not take action, one billion people will be displaced by climate change by the end of the century,” Brown University freshman Tammy Jiang said. “We cannot let that happen.”

To read the full article click here. This article is from ecoRInews.

Our campaign is focused on taking our money out of the dirty fossil fuel industry removing their social licence to operate. Students across the country are demanding that their universities’ administrations think critically about the social and political impacts of their investments.

Our movement is forcing universities to take unprecedented action.

With this new eye to where money is flowing, there has been something missing from the conversation that has the power to amplify the impact of divestment: that element is reinvestment. Reinvestment moves money toward solutions that will directly grow the green economy. While we need investment in these types of technology and infrastructure in order to transition our economy, reinvestment also creates a unique opportunity to support our allies in frontline communities.

“Reinvestment can address public health issues by funding developments in wastewater treatment and mass transit. Investments in new technology will increase access and affordability of renewable energy, resulting in increased savings for all communities.”

Today the Responsible Endowments Coalition and Energy Action Coalition unveils a new resource: A Complete Guide to Reinvestment. We are calling on universities to reinvest. Investments of just 5% of our collective endowments could grow the green economy by $20 billion. As individuals, pension funds, and communities join this movement the act of reinvesting becomes revolutionary.

To move your university to fund the future click here to download our Complete Guide to Reinvestment today.

Post and resource written by Reagan Richmond, REC Campaign Consultant

Primarily I was there supporting the voices of the people most affected by Peabody: relocated off their ancestral land, cheated out of their pensions and healthcare, menaced by hungry strip mine expansion. But as a student at Washington University in St. Louis involved in the campus campaign for fossil fuel divestment, attending the meeting had a further, more personal significance.

Not only is Peabody headquartered in St. Louis, but in 2011, the company endowed a research institute at WashU, the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization. So, when Peabody advertises on its website that it is a global leader in “clean coal solutions,” it can point to the work done by WashU faculty and students. This is despite the fact that the Consortium’s primary focus, carbon capture and sequestration, will only be commercially viable after the window to prevent catastrophic climate change is long shut. It’s flagrant greenwashing.

Even more disturbingly, Peabody’s CEO, Greg Boyce, sits on my school’s Board of Trustees. To put that in perspective, this guy who was asked to preside over the longterm integrity of an institution fundamentally about the future directs a company that plans on destabilizing the global climate system for money.

From the perspective of increased funding (and, worryingly, corporate direction) for engineering research, bravo. From the perspective of students trying to catalyze a shift in the University’s myopic investment policy away from fossil fuel companies, tough luck.

These kinds of tight relationships between corporate funders and academia are nothing new, but they certainly provide another reason to divest: to stop directly validating companies and economic models bent on wrecking the planet’s climate stability and endangering us all. Moreover, these relationships require us to expand our notion of divestment. As it’s often a college’s Board that must sign off on a change in endowment investment strategy, we must make sure we don’t need to divest our schools of some trustees, first.

Many of the folks at the shareholder meeting in Gillette were there to confront the company directly about their concerns long swept under the rug. For me, it was also a step towards removing Greg Boyce from the Board of Trustees. That’s one big reason why I followed Peabody to Wyoming: to build the case for why even among big businesses with generally poor environmental, labor, and social records, Peabody is a pariah that deserves no part in deciding anything having to do with my future. While he is a sitting member, there’s virtually no chance of my school divesting. It’s that simple.

We have our our work cut out for us.

This post is from Dan Cohn, a student activist and senior at Washington University in St. Louis, in partnership with the Responsible Endowments Coalition

As youth we’ve created a mass movement of young people demanding control of capital – and our own future. Check out highlights below:

University of Washington | Move Our Money

University of Washington student Monica Mendoza Castrejon created this image for the Move Our Money campaign. Click here for more artwork from Monica.

UC Berkeley | Move Our Money

A multicultural group of 70 student organizers reenacted a prison chain gang, tying themselves together by the ankle and marching onto UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza to demand that the university divest from the Prison Industrial Complex. As a result of the pressure from the action, as well as a massive multicultural community presence at the student senate meeting, UC Berkeley’s student senate voted to divest all of their funds from the Prison Industrial Complex, and to demand that the University do the same.

Check out video of the action below:

Oberlin | Move Our Money

Oberlin’s Responsible Investing Organization (RIO) tabled at the main library, as part of RIO’s base-building Break Up With Your Bank project. RIO is encouraging students to transfer their balances to local credit unions.

University of Oregon | Move our Money

Students from the University of Oregon’s MEChA chapter supported the Move our Money campaign by approaching local credit unions and calling for Spanish-speaking staff in an effort to improve accessibility to the local Latino community.

University of Pennsylvania | Move our Money

Students did outreach at the Social Justice Mixer, in preparation for their April 30 meeting with Penn’s Executive Vice President.

McGill University | Fossil Free Divestment & Reinvestment

Students with Divest McGill made a presentation to the Board of Governors.

University of Massachusetts Amherst | Fossil Free Divestment & Reinvestment

Over 200 students came together for a teach in about divestment.

Smith and Mt. Holyoke | Fossil Free Divestment & Reinvestment

Smith students organized a recruitment event for their divestment team and petition drive against the Keyston XL pipeline.

HEI Hotel Workers Rising | Divest

REC participated in a panel discussion about the HEI Hotel Workers Rising campaign.

We also were part of a delegation to HEI headquarters in New Haven, CT! A representative from REC, along with a Yale student, a Unite Here organizer, and 2 HEI workers managed to get speak with Nigel Hurst, Senior VP of HEI.

Carleton College | Active Ownership

A member of Carleton’s Committee on Investor Responsibility (CRIC) penned an op-ed asking, “When you hear the word CRIC what usually comes to mind?”

Harvard | Active Ownership

Responsible Investment at Harvard sent a student delegation to Jane Mendillo, President & CEO of Harvard Management Company.

In other exciting news Harvard students and alumni have independently invested the Fair Harvard Fund. Click here for more info.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Corporate Reform Coalition calls on newly confirmed SEC Chair Mary Jo White to act now to require disclosure of corporate political spending. A record-breaking 500,000 investors and members of the public have submitted comments supporting the rule, demonstrating the importance of this issue. Chair White should seize this pivotal opportunity to safeguard shareholders by providing them with information necessary for their investing decisions.

In a telephone press conference today, coalition members urged the agency to move swiftly on the rule in response to the overwhelming investor concern.

In December, the agency announced that it would consider the proposed rule to require that public companies provide disclosure to shareholders regarding the use of corporate resources for political activities. A petition requesting this rulemaking was filed in 2011 by a bipartisan committee of leading law professors. The SEC has a responsibility to protect investors by regulating the securities markets to ensure that they have the information they need to make investment decisions.

Investors and members of the public have deluged the SEC with half a million comments urging the agency to act to protect their investments. These comments have come from such diverse sources as John Bogle (former CEO of the Vanguard Group), U.S. Representatives Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mike Capuano (D-MA) and 70 other members of the House, more than a dozen U.S. Senators, five state treasurers, the Maryland State Retirement Agency, over 200,000 CREDO activists, US SIF:  The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, the Sustainable Investments Institute, a large group of firms managing more than $690 billion in assets, and many, many more.

“The fact that the SEC has received over 490,000 public comments asking for disclosure of political spending from corporations shows there is wide demand from both shareholders and the public for greater transparency.  It seems that some opponents of transparency have forgotten who owns any corporations – the shareholders, not the hired executives.  I continue to urge the SEC to move forward with its rulemaking as Congress also explores avenues to address shareholder demands legislatively” said Congressman Michael E. Capuano (MA-07).

“Shareholders have a right to know how companies in their investment portfolio are spending corporate money and that their political expenditures are advancing proper corporate purposes. The SEC should act now to protect investors,” stated New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, trustee of the state’s $152.9 billion Common Retirement Fund.
This area requires particular investor protections because certain corporate political spending choices may diverge from a company’s stated values or policies, or may endanger the company’s brand or shareholder value by embroiling it in hot-button issues.

Trevor Potter, President of the Campaign Legal Center and general counsel to John McCain’s 2008 and 2000 presidential campaigns said, “The proposed rule is a logical response from the SEC to address the changed landscape in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, striking down laws restricting corporate spending to influence elections.  That decision has exposed investors to significant new risks and the SEC is in the right in moving forward to issue this rule in order to require disclosure of corporate political spending in order to allow investors to make informed decisions in the markets.”

In Citizens United, Justice Kennedy emphasized the importance of disclosure and accountability for corporate political spending, writing that disclosure requirements “provide[] shareholders and citizens with the information needed to hold corporations and elected officials accountable for their positions and supporters.”

“America should be a place where everyone has an equal say and an equal chance. But right now, investors don’t have a chance to say anything about the political spending that public corporations may be engaged in because they don’t even know about it. If corporate managers choose to spend corporate money to influence elections, there must be rules that ensure transparency and accountability” said Liz Kennedy, Counsel at Demos.

“As the nation’s pioneer coalition of active investors, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility has more than four decades of experience identifying areas where corporate transparency leads to good investment decisions for our members. We know that transparency undergirds policies promoting value creation as well as justice and sustainability,” said Laura Berry, executive director of ICCR. “Time and time again we’ve seen the catastrophes wrought by opacity in corporate spending. The SEC must adopt investor protections to ensure transparency in the post-Citizens United environment.”

“Political spending disclosure is critical to ensure honest competition and a strong economy that rewards transparency and innovation, not secrecy and pay-to-play politics,” said Tim Christiansen, owner of vino per tutti in Bozeman, Montana and a leader with the Montana Small Business Alliance. “When the U.S. Chamber and other big trade groups defend secrecy in political spending, they’re defending a system that stacks the deck against small businesses. Secrecy may be part of the U.S. Chamber’s business model, but it’s not part of mine.”

“The American public believes in this reform, and the American investor demands it. Both polling of the general public and the influx of shareholder comments to the SEC demonstrates that fact,” stated Lisa Gilbert, Director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch.

Americans across the political spectrum strongly support requiring transparency and accountability in corporate political spending. Polling shows that eight out of 10 Americans (81%) believe that corporations should only spend money on political campaigns if they disclose their spending immediately (including 77 percent of Republicans and 88 percent of Democrats). Eighty-six percent of Americans agree that prompt disclosure of political spending would help voters, customers, and shareholders hold companies accountable for political behavior (support ranged from 83 percent to 92 percent across all political subgroups).

“It’s hard to believe there are people who object to this,” said Common Cause President Bob Edgar. “Every shareholder is a part owner. When management decides to spend an owner’s money on influencing elections, surely the owner ought to at least be able to find out about it.”

Lisa Woll, CEO of US SIF said “Representing the only US association of professionals engaged in sustainable and responsible investing, we strongly believe that corporate political spending transparency is in the best interests of investors, companies and the general public.  The Securities and Exchange Commission should require this disclosure so that investors can fully understand the actions and risks being taken by companies.”

“The American people have waited long enough. We need an overhaul of political spending to be at the top of Ms. White’s agenda. With a vote, she can force the kind of disclosure we’ve been sorely lacking since the Citizens United ruling, and shed light on the millions in shadowy spending distorting our elections,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, trustee of the New York City Employee Retirement System and founder of the Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending (CAPS).

“Hundreds of thousands of Americans have asked the SEC to move forward with a rule requiring the disclosure of political spending by publicly traded corporations,” said Marge Baker, Executive Vice President of People For the American Way. “There is tremendous momentum around this issue. With a newly-confirmed SEC chairman, now is the time to pull back the corporate curtain on election spending.  Without the increased transparency and accountability that comes with public disclosure, unchecked corporate spending on our elections will continue to threaten our democracy.”

“College students benefit from the $400 billion in endowments at this country’s institutions of higher education. These students are fighting for real policy change on issues from climate change to student loans, and support disclosure of corporate political spending because they want to know how the companies their colleges and universities invest in are spending their money,” said Dan Apfel, Executive Director of the Responsible Endowments Coalition.

Public Citizen, Demos, Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending, Trillium Asset Management LLC, Walden Asset Management, Sunlight Foundation, People for the American Way, the Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21, New Progressive Alliance, Main Street Alliance, Alliance for a Just Society, U. S. PIRG, Responsible Endowments Coalition, the Coffee Party, Harrington Investments, Inc., CREDO, Social Equity Group, and US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment participate in the Corporate Reform Coalition working to increase transparency and accountability for corporate political spending.

Unity College Reports No Loss from Fossil Fuel Divestment

Unity, Maine – April, 2013 – There are two key facts that have emerged from Unity College becoming the first institution of higher learning to divest from investments in fossil fuels. The first is that Unity’s portfolio has not suffered as a result of divesting. Quite the opposite is true.
Second, divesting should not affect an institution’s ability to provide competitive salaries and strong financial aid.

Divestment did not happen overnight. In early 2008 the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees asked Spinnaker Trust of Portland, Maine, Unity’s endowment manager, to decrease exposure to large energy companies and to move toward clean energy.

When it announced that it was divesting in November 2012, Unity was at 3 percent exposure. The timeline allowed Unity’s investment manager to prudently shift investments, including fixed income bonds, over a five year horizon.

Back when Unity began the process in 2008 its exposure to big energy was at approximately 10 percent of total endowment, says Deborah Cronin, Vice President of Finance & Administration.

“The strategy has been to shift investments in developed international countries to non-energy sectors,” Cronin explained. “Investments in emerging international countries cannot be moved specifically out of fossil fuels, as there are no sector specific Exchange Traded Funds at this time. Thus, the endowment target is less than 1 percent in, not 0, as the emerging international sector needs some fossil fuel tolerance.”
Unity’s endowment is diversified both by asset class (equities, bonds, and cash equivalents) and within asset class (within equities by economic sectors, industry, and size). The portfolio is invested in US Equities (37 percent), International Equities (20 percent), Fixed Income (35 percent), Other (3 percent), and Cash Equivalents (5 percent). Exchange Traded Funds are the investment vehicle most commonly used.

Will this move reduce Unity’s investment earnings?

“It is possible that in any given year the answer may be ‘yes,’ but over time investment performance should not be negatively impacted by this strategy,” said Cronin. “In fact, over the past five years the portfolio has met or exceeded market benchmarks despite the shift away from fossil fuel holdings. The College’s endowment is managed for the long-term benefit of the College, and it is anticipated that investment earnings will meet long-term market performance benchmarks.”

Unity College is a private college in rural Maine that provides dedicated, engaged students with a liberal arts education that emphasizes the environment and natural resources. Unity College graduates are prepared to be environmental stewards, effective leaders, and responsible citizens through active learning experiences within a supportive community.

By Bakhtawar Chaudry

When you hear the word CRIC what usually comes to mind? The chirping of crickets, a new noise in a comic book, or an organization of students, faculty and staff that advise the Board of Trustees on Carleton’s endowment and fights off crime everywhere.  Well, it is the latter minus the crime fighting part. CRIC standing for Carleton Responsible Investment Committee has been running in Carleton for over eight years and has been advising the Board of Trustees on how to vote as certain issues arise in the Carleton Community. The committee meets once a week discussing and researching resolutions, organizations, events, and opportunities.   The goal of CRIC is to be engaged by the Carleton Community, yet many people are unaware of the Organization and when they do become aware it takes awhile to understand the process. From endowments, resolutions and proxies CRIC can be a committee with a lot to understand; however, with enough communication the vision and goal of CRIC is apparent: projecting the community’s voice.

In my first meeting on CRIC I was extremely overwhelmed. Terms were being thrown such as resolutions, proxies and endowments. I got a clearer understanding of these terms as I observed and participated in meetings.  For instance a resolution may be a fairly simple term. I mean we have resolutions all the time from New Year’s Day to our legislative body, but what is a resolution when it comes to investments and who creates them. Well, that would have to be shareholders. See what happens is a resolution is filed by an organization or an individual who has stock in the company. They become the lead filer and are joined by other shareholders as co-filers. Then these resolutions are automatically on a company’s proxy list which means they will be held for a vote at the shareholder’s meeting which is sometime in the Spring.  Once these resolutions have been filed CRIC committee members receive an alert and track all the ones that come in. We then compile all the resolutions and decide which ones to present to the Board of Trustees for a “yes” vote. The number one factor in deciding how to proceed with a particular resolution is the voice of the Carleton Community. For instance we may receive a resolution asking a company to research alternative energy. We know that Carleton is an environmentally friendly campus therefore we know this is a good resolution that embodies Carleton’s values.

In fact it is the community’s voice that has caused CRIC to research and engage in activities that promote ethical and responsible investing. So far we have branched out to schools and organizations like the Responsible Endowment Coalition (REC). Through REC we are able to engage with other schools that hold our same values and share ideas in order to make the investment process more efficient. One idea we have gained from other schools, which is a big accomplishment for CRIC, is the proxy voting policy which already designates six categories that are very dear to Carleton and automatically gives a “yes” vote to the resolution falling under these categories. The six categories are Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Goals, Hydraulic Fracturing (Toxic Chemicals), Executive Compensation (Say on Pay), Political Contributions, Separate Chair & CEO and Equal Employment Opportunity.  This gives CRIC an opportunity to look for other issues that arise in the community bringing this voice to the Board of Trustees. However, the only way for this voice to be heard is through the involvement of the community.

Right now Carleton has an endowment of $640 million and we need the engagement of the Carleton community in order to figure out how to responsibly manage our endowment. CRIC has weekly meetings in which the community is more than welcome to sit in on and participate. For instance when researching resolutions community members can come and research with CRIC members directly advising the committee. Currently we have spots open for the Committee and we will be having an informational meeting so stay tuned for when this will happen and consider applying. For more information you can visit our website and check us out at http://apps.carleton.edu/governance/cric/.  Don’t hesitate to contact us if you want more information about CRIC or have any questions. Remember it is your voice we are projecting so please help us make it heard!

This essay was written for REC’s Endowment Week of Action, and will be published next week in the Carleton school paper.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers and allies send a message of solidarity with #March4th for Climate Justice.

The CIW is also currently marching – 200 miles – for farmworker justice. For more information, check out www.ciw-online.org.