The endowment had 6 percent in fossil fuels -- 3.6 percent in private equity and 2.4 percent in public companies as of February 2016, Smith President Kathleen McCartney said in a letter that month to the Northampton, Massachusetts-based college community.
The portfolio had 9.4 percent invested with managers who follow environmental, social or governance factors including $1 million invested in 2014 in a sustainable global equities fund managed by Investure, according to the letter.
Barnard had an investment decline of 4.5 percent in the year through June 30 while Smith lost 5.9 percent, Investure’s worst-performing university client. U.S. college endowments on average lost 1.9 percent in fiscal 2016, their biggest loss since the financial crisis, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers and money manager Commonfund.
Movement Spreads
The fossil fuel divestment movement has spread to hundreds of college campuses in the last five years as activists advance a campaign to sell the stocks of 200 companies with the largest reserves of oil, gas and coal, which when burned are blamed for global warming. While dozens of colleges have agreed to divest, many have limited their commitment to just coal or oil and tar sands companies.
Barnard students initially pressed for a broad divestment pledge before proposing a more limited measure that would target only those fossil fuel companies that seek to deny climate science or thwart efforts to mitigate the impact of global warming. A proposal was endorsed by a committee of Barnard trustees, faculty and students last year.
“The point is to try to get to a more sustainable portfolio,” said Goldberg, who becomes interim president when Debora Spar departs this month to run Lincoln Center in New York. “Climate change is right in front of us -- institutions like ours have to act in some way.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.