President Tania Tetlow sent an email on Oct. 4 announcing the new implementation of an Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing at Fordham University. The committee, which will be composed of students, faculty members and alumni, was created to consider ethical issues and Jesuit Catholic values surrounding investments.

“The committee will discuss current ethical investment policy, and whether particular types of investments impact the university’s Jesuit Catholic values,” said Geeta Kapadia, Fordham’s chief investment officer.

Fordham is now one of 12 Jesuit universities to create an investment committee.  A proposal for a committee on socially responsible investing by a group of students coupled with two years of student, faculty and administration engagement surrounding investments, specifically fossil fuel investments, led to the creation of the initiative.

“The concept of creating a committee to consider socially responsible investing had been considered in the past by various groups of Fordham community members,” Kapadia said.

Fordham’s committee will consist of 12 members, including four students, three faculty members, one Jesuit, two alumni and two administrators. The group will consider socially responsible aspects of Fordham’s investments and then make recommendations to the Investment Committee of the Fordham Board of Trustees. According to Kapadia, they hope to use Ignatian discernment in order to “facilitate robust and thoughtful decisions that consider a variety of viewpoints.”

To keep the Fordham community informed about the actions of the committee, representatives will make appointments to the Faculty Senate, Administrator’s Council, the Alumni Association and the United Student Governments at Lincoln Center and Rose Hill, according to Tetlow’s email. 

The values and definitions that the committee bases their decisions on are in the process of being determined. “The criteria and practices that are used to define socially responsible investing will be decided by the committee once it is established,” Kapadia said.