SHARE POWER Campaign – University Connection
Making the university connection...
If you are connected in any way to a university or college – as a student, alum, faculty or staff, or a concerned member of the community – you can use that connection to influence corporate behavior.
Here you will learn about:
- How your school is linked to powerful companies, and their responsibilities
- How your school may be tacitly supporting human rights abuses
- What YOUR College or University should do to influence corporate behavior
- What YOU can do to promote responsible investing practices at your school
How is your school linked to powerful companies and what are their responsibilities?
• Endowments and Pension Funds
All universities own stocks – often millions of dollars worth – in their endowments and their employee pension funds. As large institutional shareholders, universities hold sway with the companies they invest in. They have the power to raise important issues about the way that these companies are operating – issues that are important to the faculty, staff and students, as well as people outside the campus who support the university's presence in their communities.
• Missions and Values
Contributing to the common good and instilling an ethos of social stewardship are fundamental principles underlying the missions of educational institutions. In particular, four values are consistently articulated: (1) an emphasis on working for the common good, (2) an appreciation of diversity, (3) the value of supporting the local community, and (4) the importance of protecting the environment.
Investing in and profiting from companies whose business practices undermine human rights and inflict other social and environmental harms directly contradicts these core commitments to social stewardship. The education students receive should not be funded by investments that promote the social harms that educational institutions are preparing students to help eliminate. Instead, colleges and universities can use their investments to push for the progressive elimination of corporate practices that may be contributing to social and environmental ills.
• Being a leader and setting an example
Universities and colleges build their reputations based on the quality of education they provide, the research they produce, and the values they represent. Their investments can be considered an extension of these values, particularly when they are assessed in terms of their impact on social and economic issues. Universities and colleges can enhance their reputations by harnessing their substantial weight as investors to support important causes, to protect the environment, and to defend human rights.
Furthermore, students are being taught to be leaders in society and to work hard to make an impact in their communities and the world beyond. In order for colleges and universities effectively to instill in their students the stated values of serving the common good, institutions must model high standards of social and environmental responsibility.
Is your school tacitly supporting human rights abuses?
All shareholders, including university endowments, have a responsibility to vote on a variety of proposals each year, many of them focused on social and environmental issues. Owning stock in a company also creates opportunities for shareholders to initiate or file proposals on issues they are concerned about, either alone or in coalition with other investors. Yet many universities do not use this power. Or worse, they (unwittingly or not) use their power as shareholders in ways that tacitly support the status quo, allowing companies to deny their human rights responsibilities. And because they rarely publicly report how they are investing, or how they are voting on shareholder proposals, their constituents – students, faculty, the community – are often left in the dark.
What should YOUR College or University do to influence corporate behavior?
There are many ways that your school can use their investor power in a positive way. When a school owns companies that are facing social and environmental challenges, they can use shareholder activism to harness their substantial weight as an investor to support important causes and to defend human rights. They should:
• Form a committee with the responsibility of overseeing the school’s investment practices with respect to environmental and social issues.
• Adopt proxy voting guidelines to direct their voting on environmentally and socially conscious shareholder proposals and make the guidelines public.
• File or co-file socially and environmentally responsible proposals with companies they own.
• Be active shareholders by engaging with the companies in which they are invested through letters and direct dialogue.
• Establish investment screens that direct the school’s investments to progressive and socially responsible companies and/or divert investments from companies with irresponsible business practices.
• Create a social choice fund to give alumni and donors the option of directing their contributions to social, environmental, or community enrichment.
Amnesty International has collaborated with the Responsible Endowments Coalition (REC) on a new handbook for schools interested in integrating social, environmental and governance considerations into investment decisions. Use this handy reference to study up on the most compelling arguments you'll need to make your campaign succeed, and as a resource you can give directly to administrators and trustees when they ask you obscure questions about technical stuff like fiduciary responsibility!
- Download our handbook on how to reform university and college endowments
- Read about the results of our past shareholder activism campaigns:
Chevron | Dow | Internet Companies - Review our glossary of useful investment terms
What can YOU do to promote responsible investing practices at your school?
If you want to ensure that the university or college you're connected to is doing all it can to promote corporate accountability for human rights, follow our step-by-step guidelines to plan a SHARE POWER Campaign.
You will learn:
• How to research your school’s endowment and current investment policies;
• How to approach and talk to your school’s trustees or investment managers;
• How to organize a campaign on your campus;
• How you can network with other groups on your campus and nationwide;
• About current socially and environmentally conscious shareholder resolutions;
• And much more to help you lead a SHARE POWER Campaign…
