Chloe Wright, Executive Editor
Students, faculty, and staff are cautiously hopeful about the ad hoc advisory committee including undergraduate students that would promote change in The University of the South’s investment policies. This is a shift from beliefs among some students and faculty that their concerns about the University’s endowment have been ignored.
The University’s investment practices have been debated around the Domain for decades. Students argued that the practices are not aligned with Sewanee’s Episcopal values and the investment principle of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG). When speaking out, the students felt like their requests were ignored.
The committee was formed when Vice-Chancellor Rob Pearigen met with student activists in May 2024 during the Sewanee for Palestine protest. The goal of the protest was to encourage Sewanee to divest from investments in the defense industry. They discussed how to navigate student and administrative interests and socially responsible investing over the summer.
Jawaria Jaleel (C ‘27) and Rowland Fournier (C ‘27) were selected to be the College of Arts and Sciences students in the advisory committee. Both are tasked to bring a student point of view to realign the investment practices. The other members include School of Theology student representative Joseph Rhodes (T ‘27), faculty members, Coordinator for Student Programming Morgan Jennings, Provost Scott Wilson, Treasurer Doug Williams, and Pearigen.
Jaleel, the Student Government Association representative, praised how the advisory committee encouraged student involvement. She said, “It definitely defines how seriously Sewanee takes their students, so I am actually grateful to sit at that table and know everything we need to know to inform our peers.”
So far, the student body representatives said the committee’s work has just begun. “We’re still in the starting process,” Jaleel said. “I think we have a general good sense of how we want things to work out, but getting on the real deal, once we have the details of how we’re invested and whether we do have a say in that…I think we’re still at that point where we don’t know that answer.”
Pearigen sent a draft of the revised University’s Responsible Investment Guidelines on Dec. 19, 2024 to the faculty, staff, and current undergraduate students from the College and School of Theology. Included was the advisory committee’s charge:
“By May 2025, to produce an advisory report to the administration related to environmental, social, and governance principles and investment of the University’s endowment. The report will provide advice on the following matters: areas of investment that might be scrutinized with regard to University values and, therefore, warrant monitoring and potentially reduced scope within the investment portfolio; and the form of regular reporting by the administration to the University community on the University’s endowment performance and allocations.”
The University’s Investment Management Committee (IMC), made up of the Board of Regents, Pearigen, and Treasurer Doug Williams, is the only group who knows the current invested companies or their sectors. The advisory committee, including the undergraduate students, is there to counsel the IMC in their next course of action.
The School of Theology’s faculty representative, Professor Andrew Thompson, said the advisory body “represents an important step that has been a long time coming, and I’m glad it’s happening. But officially it is only an advisory group – all we can do is make recommendations. So it remains to be seen what impact those recommendations have on the decision-makers.”
Fournier, the Order of the Gown’s representative, voiced concern that the committee’s structure may not allow it to have actual influence or instigate change. “The creation of a committee that has the ability to advise the committee that actually sees the investments… it’s a roundabout way of saying we can’t actually have any power.”
The power limit was an intentional choice in order for the student body and faculty not to overstep “past the administration straight to the Board of Regents,” said Professor Aaron Elrod of economics. Elrod serves on the college faculty’s coordinating committee, which created the advisory group alongside Vice-Chancellor Rob Pearigen and Provost Scott Wilson. “From their perspective, part of our initial language was not in line with the University ordinances,” Elrod said. “The administration is kind of acting as a go-between, which is how the [University’s governing] ordinance is set up.”
Elrod and the faculty’s coordinating committee saw an issue with this, but he is still optimistic. “That is not necessarily ideal because that cuts off a line of communication,” Elrod said of the advisory committee’s structure. “Compared to previous administrations, I think this administration is listening more. Even if there are small steps, they’re forward steps.”
The Sewanee for Palestine protest in 2024 was the most recent, major call for student voices in the University’s investment practices, mainly to divest from weapons manufacturing companies funding Israeli military actions in Gaza. The Tennessee Lookout received access to an email sent by Pearigen that stated, by June 4, 2024, about “1.3%, or around $5.72 million, is invested in the aerospace and defense industries.” The catalyst for the advisory group was the community push for transparency regarding University endowments. When the protest happened, it expedited the process of the student body having a seat at the table.
There are concerns among some that the process to argue for divestment would be complicated. It could affect the income on Sewanee’s endowments. Questions like these, according to Jaleel, are considered in the advisory committee. “In the longer run, are we able to diminish those effects that are causing harm,” Jaleel asked. “Or are we feeding them to a point where they’re going to become some big investments that the University cannot afford to lose because they also have to keep themselves running?”
Also, several members of the Board of Regents are employed by defense and oil contractors. Even though this does not automatically mean the University puts its money in problematic companies, the Regents have a lot of administrative power.
Current Regent Marcel Lettre (C ‘84) is the Vice President for Space Programs for Lockheed Martin, a company “proud of the significant role it has fulfilled in the security of the State of Israel,” according to its website. Regent Mary Claire Murphy (C ‘82) is an employee of the defense industry giant Textron Inc.
Regent John “Roe” Buckley (C ‘84) is the CFO of Mewbourne Oil Company. In August 2023, that Tyler, Texas-based firm agreed to pay a “$5.5 million in fines, an additional $3.6 million in preventative monitoring measures, and $1 million in oilfield equipment updates to settle claims brought by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of New Mexico over air pollution generated by its oil and gas wells in New Mexico and Texas,”
In a recent Purple interview, Vice-Chancellor Pearigen recalled meeting with the students multiple times beginning last summer about how to make the ESG policy more transparent. “We weren’t going in there with any kind of commitments to make decisions, but we did want to be clear about the process. I thought those conversations were very helpful,” he said. “I think we made some progress. We will do as we said we would do.”
Jaleel said she did not hear about the group until the 2024 Advent semester. “There were talkings going on about the formation of one, but it wasn’t tangible.”
Also, Fournier desires to make Sewanee’s investments aligned with the Episcopal Church’s stated investment policies. “We’re hopefully going to try to screen our endowments through the no-buy list, and that will give us much more information.”
The Episcopal Church has a publicly available list of “no-buy portfolio restrictions” for dioceses and congregations to screen their investments through. The five categories of restrictions are on human rights, militarism, for-profit prisons, tobacco products, and fossil fuels.
Thompson directly worked with the Episcopal Church in creating these screening procedures and thinks it would be helpful for Sewanee to consider them. “I know a lot of thought went into the list, and I think it’s a pretty good list. As an Episcopal institution, I think Sewanee should pay attention to those recommendations. But it’s also appropriate for us to articulate our own priorities and determine to what extent those recommendations are right for us.”
According to Sewanee’s 2024 Tax Audit, The University’s Endowment included $10,587,159 in limited partnerships involved in “Natural Resources.”
While the document does not specifically state whether fossil fuels are included in those investments, students claimed that the University’s current investment practices are not limited to sustainable equities and partnerships. Fournier refers to Sewanee’s current environmental practices, ranging from no real recycling procedures to a car-dependent campus. “Our investments should reflect our values, and it’s my belief they really don’t,” he said.
This is not the first time students have had friction between upper administratives about the disconnect between Sewanee’s investments and their values. In 2013, faculty and administrators of Sewanee created the Sustainability Master Plan, which stated that Sewanee’s environmentally conscious values and transparency about our investments and endowment. However, the students of the Socially Conscious Investment Club (SoCo) expressed that the University’s endowments were a “direct violation of such values,” according to a Purple op-ed written by club member Annabel Forward (C ‘23).
The controversy received nationwide attention. The New York Times in 2020 visited Sewanee and reported on the SoCo’s struggle against the administration. The Times article did not prompt an administrative response to the whole community, and that caused more frustration amongst the student body. “Not even a New York Times article could get the University to start listening,” Forward wrote in her op-ed.
Jaleel said she was eager to join the committee because she believes it can make a difference beyond Sewanee. “When looking at investments and looking at Sewanee, it often seems like we’re in a bubble. As an international student, I haven’t had that bubble any time before. When you do exist in one, you realize how it doesn’t appear as big as it is in actuality. Our investments do not only affect Sewanee. There is a larger ripple effect.”
Elrod said the students’ involvement may be more powerful than they think. “For change to occur, it’s gonna take student voices. Student voices are going to carry more weight than any other voices,” he said. “And being able to provide the student voice directly to those who can make change: in this case, it’s the Board of Regents.”