At the end of February, I received the report from the Committee on Socially Responsible Investments & Partnerships, which met over the course of this academic year. In the current tense environment that surrounds higher education, the report and the legacy of this committee will provide a profound basis for impactful decisions and actions.
As you may recall the committee was announced last May in response to ongoing student activism related to Portland State University’s relationship with Boeing and the ongoing violence and death in Gaza.
By establishing a committee to review practices around investment and partnership, I intended to broaden our campus conversation to ensure that decisions we make about investments, gifts, and partnerships are grounded in PSU’s values and take into account a full range of mission-aligned considerations.
I am grateful for the work of the committee and to OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Dean Paul Halverson who served as its chair.
The committee was charged with researching the various frameworks for decision-making across campus and also reviewing models employed by other institutions to identify best practices. Committee members also gathered feedback from the campus community and delivered recommendations for my review.
After reflecting on the report, I met last week with committee members to discuss next steps. I was impressed with their engagement and the thoughtfulness with which they approached the committee’s charge.
The committee pointed out that despite our frequent references to our shared values as a university community, that individual value systems vary widely in many areas. They strongly endorsed — and I agree — that PSU should establish a standing committee to help maintain thoughtful and consistent oversight of our investments and partnerships in line with our core values as an academic institution.
They also emphasized that adopting an investment and partnership policy model, like the ones that they studied from other institutions, will be key to consistency in decision making and stability over time.
The models they studied range from an activist model, where every financial decision is made considering social and environmental factors, to a “De Minimis” approach, where such factors are considered only when they don’t compromise returns, to a model of full institutional neutrality, where investment decisions are made based only on financial considerations except in extremely rare circumstances meeting clear criteria and community consensus.
In order to ensure that the policies we put in place to guide our financial and partnership decisions, I am asking the Board of Trustees to consider these models and adopt a model to be employed going forward.
The standing committee will then work to oversee the framework’s development and its implementation to guide our decisions going forward.
We’ll also work with the PSU Foundation to develop new ways to help the campus community understand their role, their impact and their investment priorities.
As you can see, the work of the committee may be completed but the work of the university will continue as we consider and implement these recommendations.
I am committed to this process. It is essential that the partnerships we establish and the investments that we make while also providing the resources and opportunities that support our students in achieving their educational and professional goals.
Learn more about the committee and read the report on my webpage.