Amherst College possesses an endowment worth roughly $900 million. This figure reflects impressive efforts undertaken by the College over the last several decades to ensure Amherst's financial viability. Despite the administration's work, however, Amherst has yet to consider the social and environmental impacts of its investments. By investing endowment funds without sufficient regard for the practices and operating principles of individual corporations, the College risks supporting practices that directly contradict the principles upon which it stands. As members of the College community who benefit from the resources that the endowment provides, Amherst students, faculty and staff share in the responsibility for the effects of Amherst's investments. Just as the College demands members of its community to take responsibility for the consequences of its actions, so must the community demand that the College take responsibility for the consequences of its actions beyond the geographical boundaries of the Amherst community. To begin to accept this responsibility, the College must incorporate non-financial values into its investment policy and become a socially responsible investor.

One might reasonably ask: What non-financial values should the College use to guide its future investments and divestitures? After all, the College has no mission statement. Without such a document, how could one ever presume to know the precise values of the institution? Indeed, these questions resist any succinct answer. Nonetheless, the College has always attempted to establish itself as a model community. As President Marx stated, the College's founders established a private school with a public mission. The College has identified certain core values necessary to create such a model institution. One example appears in the College catalog, which asserts that "Amherst College prizes and defends freedom of speech and dissent." In creating an open educational environment, the College identifies this freedom as a fundamental part of what it stands for. Recently, the College has also reiterated its commitment to opening the community to individuals from all groups within our society. The College's Statement on Respect for Persons extends respect to all individuals and groups, regardless "of race, religion, ethnic identification, age, handicap, gender or sexual orientation." Here, the College expresses its desire to create an open community that values all groups and individuals.

Given these brief examples, one can begin to explore the social responsibility that the College must begin to demonstrate in its investment policy. As a community, Amherst College has committed itself to certain moral principles. Moreover, as a model college with a "social role" (the term comes from President Marx's convocation address), the College undermines its own purpose by investing in, and therefore actively supporting, corporations that fail to recognize the College's moral principles. Examples of such corporate behavior could be companies that refuse to protect the rights of Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender (LBGT) employees or to respect their workers' right to unionize. Certainly, such behavior would constitute a serious violation of what might be termed Amherst values. It would be unforgivable for Amherst, which commits itself to certain values and to encouraging students' moral education, to profit from institutions that reject these values.

An alternative to divestment would be shareholder activism, whereby the College would use its power as a shareholder to support and propose resolutions that demand corporations to change specific policies. Amherst should explore shareholder activism as a strategy which, combined with targeted divestment, can solidify Amherst's commitment to socially responsible investing.

As mentioned above, nowhere does Amherst state its central values completely. The procedure for determining the principles by which the College should invest its endowment will, and should, be a complex one. No doubt, thorough deliberations must precede any official decision. The difficulty of such an enterprise, however, does not diminish its importance. 

19 years ago, the College confronted the moral predicament created by its holdings in companies that operated in, and profited from, Apartheid South Africa. After student protests, petitions, forums and meetings with trustees, the board of trustees agreed to divest its holdings in these companies. This constituted a decisive moment in the history of the College. In divesting, the College came to terms with the consequences of its financial activities and identified an institution (Apartheid) that it refused to support. Instead of continuing to condone the activities of the Botha regime, the Trustees made a bold statement about the principles for which the College stands.

19 years later, the Amherst community has the opportunity to renew its discussion of socially responsible investing. Nationwide, many colleges and universities have incorporated non-financial values into their investment strategies. Many of Amherst's peer institutions-Williams, Smith, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke Colleges, and Harvard, Princeton and Stanford Universities, to name a few-have worked to consider non-financial values in their investment policies. The Smith trustees, for example, explicitly state that "all aspects of Smith College's activities, including endowment fund investments, [must] be undertaken with an awareness of social and moral issues." Moreover, numerous schools have established advisory committees for shareholder responsibility to advise trustees on shareholder resolution votes. Other schools have divested from industries, such as tobacco, which they feel run contrary to their missions. Finally, Williams College has developed a fund for alumni giving that invests solely in socially responsible mutual funds and community development funds. This policy demonstrates how socially responsible investing can be used as a pro-active method for social change.

With such formidable precedent across the nation, Amherst cannot continue to invest its endowment without regard for its commitment to certain fundamental values. The College should use the experiences of its peers, America's elite academic institutions, to shape its own policy on socially responsible investing.