Where does our College invest its money?

Author: MIKE IVES 06.5'

Please allow me a brief, but far from immaterial, history lesson: In 1883, workers at the Vermont Copper Mining Company in Rutland took up arms demanding payment of wages owed them by their employer. In response, then-governor Barstow called on the local regiment of the Vermont militia to keep the strikers down. Among the volunteers was the owner of the Producers Marble Company, a powerful businessman who made no pretense of his unwillingness to share political power with a burgeoning labor movement.

He was a man who, by 1894, would buy out every small marble producer in the State of Vermont. His infamous success as a cut-throat industrialist would later propel him into the State Assembly, the Governorship, the United States Senate and the presidential cabinet as Secretary of War under President Benjamin Harrison.

A generation later, his son would serve as Governor and continue to advance business interests at the expense of participatory democracy. In August 1924, he would commit his most infamous act in office: pardoning three Klu Klux Klansmen after they had stolen religious items from a Catholic church in Burlington and fired shots at the congregation.

One of these men was named Redfield Proctor. One of the Dining Halls at Middlebury College bears the latter's namesake since he was also, in addition to a politician, a trustee of the College.

How does this all relate to our institution in the year 2005? Ask any trustee, or even President Leibowitz, and they'd probably have some idea of what you were getting at. Middlebury, after all, has a $703 million endowment, and a sizeable chunk of it is invested somewhere in this wide financial world. Where exactly, we couldn't say, since the College's endowment is shrouded in a "non-disclosure" policy - a polite way of saying, quite literally, to the College community, "none of your business."

But while we're not allowed to know where that money's invested, one could guess, with a fair degree of certainty, that some of it is invested in corporations. And on top of that, it's probable that at least a portion of that money is invested in some of the more lucrative corporations of the day - weapons manufacturers, prison contractors, oil conglomerates and so on.

Those in charge of managing Middlebury's endowment, like former Governor Proctor, are powerful businessmen and women who make a living by turning a profit. Thus, the fact that President Leibowitz and his administration won't tell us where our money is invested makes even the most casual observer extremely suspicious, and for good reason. At a place where intellectual freedom is a prized commodity, so to speak, the students and faculty have a right to know where the money that waters their lawn has been. Why is this information being withheld from the College community?

For our own good, of course. That's the excuse we're given by the powers-that-be. If Middlebury were to disclose where its endowment was invested, they say, other schools would be able to take advantage of the information - outdated Bose speakers in Ross! BYOB graduation galas! A shortage of tiramisu in our beloved Proctor Hall!

But that argument doesn't hold up after a cursory look at other prestigious academic institutions around the country. Schools like Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Barnard, Swarthmore, U Penn and - gasp -Williams all boast endowments of varying degrees of transparency. In other words, students and faculty have some input in the process of deciding what kind of companies their institutions invest in. No matter what statistics our administration might throw at us, our competitor schools have not slipped in prestige or financial viability as a result of switching to more transparent investment strategies.

Now, as the bounty of summer has recently expired, it's time to start talking about another kind of green. The prospect of a reconfigured endowment makes sense when considered in light of Middlebury's other environmentally and socially responsible initiatives, like the new wind power turbine. Plus, if some investments were re-directed towards business ventures in Addison County, the College could help strengthen an ever-important local economy.

President Leibowitz should make socially responsible investment one of the priorities for his term as president. He can start right now by explaining to the entire campus community exactly why our endowment isn't transparent, and what it will take to change it. Then students, faculty, administrators, financial consultants, community members, alumni and trustees alike can begin working together to establish an honest and intelligent system of investment that keeps everyone satisfied while maintaining the endowment's good health.

The smell of Proctor sours a bit when you know its history. Just imagine what else could be lurking under our collective nose.