President Tania Tetlow sent an email on October 4 announcing the creation of a new advisory committee on socially responsible investing at Fordham University. The committee, comprised of students, faculty, and alumni, was established to consider ethical issues surrounding investing and Jesuit Catholic values.
“The committee will discuss current ethical investment policies and whether certain types of investments impact the university’s Jesuit Catholic values,” Geeta Kapadia, Fordham’s chief investment officer, said in a statement. Ta.
Fordham University is currently one of 12 Jesuit universities that have established an investment committee. A proposal from a student group’s Committee on Socially Responsible Investing and two years of student, faculty, and administration engagement regarding investments, particularly fossil fuel investments, led to the creation of this initiative.
“The concept of establishing a committee to review socially responsible investing has been considered in the past by various groups of Fordham community members,” Kapadia said.
The Fordham committee is comprised of 12 members: four students, three faculty, one Jesuit, two alumni, and two administrators. The group will review the social responsibility aspects of Fordham’s investments and then make recommendations to the Fordham Board of Trustees’ Investment Committee. Kapadia said they hope to use Ignatius’ insights to “facilitate solid, thoughtful decisions that consider a variety of perspectives.”
To keep the Fordham community informed about the committee’s activities, Tetlow said in an email that representatives will be appointed to the Faculty Senate, the Administrators Council, the Alumni Association, and the Lincoln Center-Rose Hill United Student Government.
The values and definitions on which the Committee will base its decisions are currently being determined. “The criteria and practices used to define socially responsible investing will be determined by the committee once it is established,” Kapadia said.
