Brandeis - InVEST

To:  University Administration and Board of Trustees

Brandeis University is built on a dedication to the active pursuit of social justice, written into the institution’s four founding pillars. This commitment does not stop at education, but includes social responsibility across the board – including the University’s endowment policies. Currently, Brandeis does not publicly reveal any of the companies in which it is invested. The university also has no established mechanism for determining the social or environmental impact of our investments. We believe Brandeis has an opportunity to reform these policies, show its commitment to its founding values, and use its investments as a force for social responsibility.

To these ends, we, the undersigned, believe our endowment should have greater transparency. We further believe an advisory committee to the Board of Trustees should be established to consider the social impact of our investments.

Such reforms have been instituted at many of our peer institutions, including Harvard, Brown, Yale, Smith, Williams, Vassar, Stanford, Swarthmore, and Columbia. We hope Brandeis will join the forefront and serve as an example of responsible public citizenship to universities worldwide.

Our namesake, Justice Louis Brandeis, once said,

"There is no such thing to my mind as an innocent stockholder. He may be innocent in fact, but socially he cannot be held innocent. He accepts the benefits of the system. It is his business and his obligation to see that those who represent him carry out a policy which is consistent with public welfare."

The undersigned affirm this sentiment, and hope our University’s policies soon reflect it.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Brandeis - InVEST Petition to University Administration and Board of Trustees was created by Brandeis University and written by Alex Melman (amelman@brandeis.edu).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.