A video has been circling the Internet for the past week calling on Carleton to withdraw pension fund investments from five companies linked to Israeli defence. As members of the Carleton community, Students Against Israeli Apartheid, the group that launched the video, and others are certainly entitled to air concerns about the school’s investment choices. But there are channels to go through when seeking action affecting the school’s retirement fund members, and more logical ways to seek change to the pension fund investment portfolio in a more logical manner.
Sending a video around the web attacking Carleton as an institution and figures, such as the university president, who don’t control pension fund policies, is misdirected.
The only body that has the power to change pension plan policies is the pension plan committee. This body’s main directive is to optimize returns on investment for Carleton’s retirement plan members. This committee is accountable solely to its stakeholders and must put the interests of retirement plan members above all else. If members of the Carleton community are concerned about the way Carleton invests its money, they’ll need retirement plan members to raise concerns to the committee.
And if the pension plan committee is going to consider changes to its investment portfolio, it would be irresponsible to jump the gun and drop five companies before implementing any policy outlining why, when and how it is appropriate to take such action.
A few Canadian universities, such as McGill and Queen’s, have policies outlining socially responsible investment (SRI). At this point Carleton has no such policies, but should.
If students want Carleton to be pickier about where it invests its money, they will need to get shareholders to demand such a change in a responsible way.