Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 70.13
Liaison John Alejandro
Submission Date March 24, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of San Diego
PA-9: Committee on Investor Responsibility

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Alison Sanchirico
Sustainability Coordinator
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have a formally established and active committee on investor responsibility (CIR) or equivalent body?:
Yes

The charter or mission statement of the CIR or other body which reflects social and environmental concerns or a brief description of how the CIR is tasked to address social and environmental concerns:

The committee responsible for this is the entire Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Language below is directly from the investment guidelines that the committee abides by:

"Social Responsibility -
It is important to recognize that the University has a moral and fiduciary responsibility to pursue a reasonable rate of return, with appropriate diversification and risk, on its portfolio, in order to support its mission and goals. Within this context, the Committee will consider factors other than investment return in its investment choices in order to reflect the University’s social and ethical principles, and will take proactive steps to invest in ways that are consistent with these principles wherever reasonably possible. In its consideration of its social responsibility in investing, the Committee will evaluate:
1) the exclusion from the portfolio securities of firms whose policies are contrary to the values the University adopts;
2) the investment in firms that demonstrate a high level of social concern; and
3) the influencing of the social behavior of invested firms through the exercise of ownership rights.

The University’s mutual funds, commingled accounts or limited partnerships are only managed according to their prospectus and limited partnership agreements, so customization of guidelines is generally not possible for these investments. The Committee will not knowingly invest commingled funds with any manager whose stated strategy is inconsistent with our principles."


Does the CIR include academic staff representation?:
Yes

Does the CIR include non-academic staff representation?:
Yes

Does the CIR include student representation?:
Yes

Members of the CIR, including affiliations and role:

Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees:

President James T. Harris (President)
Luis Maizel (Board Member)
Rob Dean (Board Member)
Leo Festino (Board Member)
Kevin Green (Board Member)
Dan Herbert (Alumni)
Paul Purcell (Board Member)
Peter Seidler (Board Member)
Mark Bosco (Board Member)
Tom Breitling (Board Member)
Don Knauss (Board Member)
Darrin Montalvo (Board Member)
Jamey Power (Board Member)
Matt Reno (Board Member)
Steve Sumner, PhD (faculty representative)
Stephanie Silvar (undergraduate student representative)
Robbie Ponce (graduate student representative)

https://www.sandiego.edu/documents/main/2019-20%20Membership%20on%20Board%20Committees,%20approved%20by%20the%20Board%20on%20September%2029,%202019.pdf


Examples of CIR actions during the previous three years:

Screening applied for a new investment with Parametric S&P Global Natural Resource Equity Index Fund using the FFV - Catholic Values screen.

In December 2020, USD created a Task Force on Socially Responsible Investing that will make recommendations to the CIR on issues of divestment and better aligning our endowment with our mission and values.


Website URL where information about the institution’s committee on investor responsibility is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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