Trinity College Responds to Disclosure and Divestment Requests

Guided by its fiduciary responsibilities, the Board of Trustees has chosen not to change or revise Trinity College’s investment policies. The College shared that decision with the community Monday, November 25, in response to requests about disclosure and divestment. The message was signed by Lisa Bisaccia ’78, chair of the Board of Trustees; James Yu ’87, chair of the Investment Committee; and Joanne Berger-Sweeney, Trinity president. Below is the letter in its entirety.

Last spring, Trinity College trustees received requests from student activist groups regarding the investment and management of the endowment, particularly in relation to how investment choices might be used as a response to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. In a meeting with student representatives in October, members of the Investment Committee (IC, formerly the Investment Subcommittee) of the Board of Trustees heard thoughtful arguments that advocated for disclosure and divestment.

Regarding the demands, the IC reviewed information related to these proposals during the summer and fall and led the full board in conversations about the tactic of using the endowment as a tool to effect political change. Today, we write to share more information about the requests, the principles guiding the board’s assessment, and the outcome of this process.

As a reminder of the events leading to these discussions, certain community members have examined and articulated arguments centered on the disclosure of specific endowment holdings, demands for divestment, and, in some cases, reinvestments in programs. The following acknowledges the demands to date:

The Palestine Solidarity Encampment and TrinDivests have since focused their requests on disclosure of information regarding the 21 companies in the encampment group’s original request.

The Board of Trustees is charged with protecting the College’s ability to deliver its mission: to prepare students to be bold, independent thinkers who lead transformative lives. A crucial component of ensuring that the College can carry out its mission is the stewardship of financial resources, including the endowment, for the benefit of the institution as a whole. Actions taken by the board should either directly relate to the preservation and advancement of the College’s mission or, in unusual cases, reflect a broad and deep agreement among Trinity’s students, faculty, staff, and alumni and should not harm the College’s interests and future financial outlook. The board’s primary responsibility is to serve as fiduciary of the institution. In this role, it must consider and respect the perspectives of all community members—rather than a single group or groups at a point in time—when making decisions regarding the College’s well-being.

The board has charged the IC with oversight of the endowment’s growth to retain intergenerational value. The IC works with Trinity’s outsourced investment manager, Commonfund, in the following ways to achieve this goal:

Trinity uses its endowment similarly to other colleges and universities: to fund various annual and long-term institutional initiatives, including student financial aid, faculty and administrative employee compensation, other areas of the operating budget, and infrastructure projects. Furthermore, the College already invests considerably in supporting our Hartford neighbors through programs such as CHER, the Boys and Girls Club of Hartford, HMTCA, Dream Camp, and many other programs. It also should be noted that Trinity has not directly invested in fossil fuels since 2018.

Using the above guiding principles, the board has considered the practical challenges and feasibility of divesting or exerting political influence with the endowment. Given the complexities of investment management, most fund managers will not publicly disclose specific holdings and percentages, as that is considered proprietary information. It would be unrealistic to expect our current fund managers to remove or exclude particular companies from our investment portfolio, as such exclusionary demands would compromise our access to fund managers, in turn undermining the board’s ability to perform its fiduciary obligation.

Upending a complex fiscal strategy and replacing it with a plan with company exclusions could result in investment losses or lower investment returns, which would compromise the College’s operating budget and long-term return objectives. It also is unlikely that this strategy would be effective in bringing about the desired geopolitical influence.

Guided by its fiduciary responsibilities, the Board of Trustees has chosen not to change or revise the College’s investment policies. We will continue with our primary objective of maintaining the endowment’s intergenerational equity to support current and future generations of students. The long-term and practical challenges of divesting or utilizing the endowment to exert political influence would create too much risk for the institution and potentially compromise its ability to carry out its primary educational mission. The College’s faculty, staff, students, and future students depend upon a strong and growing endowment to support our critical operations.

The board agrees that the community would benefit from greater transparency about the endowment and its complexities. The Office of Finance, in collaboration with the Offices of Advancement and of Communications and Marketing, introduced an annual endowment report and an endowment website this fall that promotes a greater understanding of this valuable College resource. The report is similar to the information shared by peer institutions. We are committed to continue sharing this level of information in the future. The board also supports discussions on campus about responsible investing, such as the “Investing for Impact” webinar held on October 10.

During the past year, the board has heard many different opinions about divestment; there are those who strongly support the aforementioned divestment demands, those who are adamantly against divestment, and those who believe it is not the College’s role to comment on or to take an active role in debating geopolitical issues that are not directly related to its core mission. While we know some will not agree with this decision to maintain the current investment policy and strategy, the board will not take an action that is inherently political and potentially polarizing in nature for the entire Trinity community or that compromises its fiduciary responsibilities.

In closing, the Board of Trustees expresses respect for the members of our community who contributed to the discussion and articulated their opinions. The board also appreciates the student representatives who took time to speak with the IC.

Trinity is at its best when we learn from one another. The board’s ultimate responsibility is to support an institution where we can hold difficult discussions and where current and future students can grow into bold, independent thinkers who will transform our world for the better.