Barnard’s Board of Trustees established the Presidential Task Force to Examine Divestment at its meeting on December 9, 2015, as a result of an effective year-long student campaign from the group Divest Barnard to convince Barnard’s administration and Board to consider divesting its endowment from fossil fuel companies.
The goal of the Task Force is to enable the Committee on Investments and, subsequently, the Board of Trustees, to make an informed decision about whether to seek divestment from companies that extract, process, distribute, and sell fossil fuels. President Spar charged the Task Force “to work collaboratively with a cross-section of the Barnard community to assess the financial implications of divestment; to understand Barnard's ethical responsibilities as a good global citizen in dealing with the impact of climate change; and to make a determination about the compatibility of these priorities.”
Over the course of nine months, the Task Force weighed the financial and fiduciary responsibilities of the Board to grow the value of Barnard’s endowment and the moral and ethical issues surrounding Barnard’s responsibility to do its part to address the climate change issue.
Read the full report from the Presidential Task Force to Examine Divestment.
Read the press release announcing Task Force report.
Read the media alert announcing the divestment decision.
Presidential Task Force To Examine Divestment
Ex Officio Members
Debora Spar, President, Barnard College
Jolyne Caruso-Fitzgerald, BC ’81, Chair, Board of Trustees
Linda Fayne-Levinson, BC ’62, Chair, Committee on Investments
Task Force Members
Robert Goldberg, Chief Operating Officer, Task Force Chair
Eileen Di Benedetto, VP for Finance, Task Force Executive Director
Camille Kiely Kelleher, BC ’70, Trustee, Committee on Investments
Purnima Puri, Trustee, Committee on Investments
Daniel Zwirn, Trustee, Committee on Investments
Faculty & Staff
Sandra Goldmark, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice, Theatre
Stephanie Pfirman, Hirschorn Professor of Environmental and Applied Science and Co-Chair of the Department of Environmental Science
Rajiv Sethi, Professor, Economics
Julia Wang, Director, Campus Services Administration
Students
Evelyn Mayo, BC ’18, Divest Barnard Representative
Camila Puig, BC ’17, Divest Barnard Representative
Maya Edwards, BC ’17, SGA Representative
Christine Pries, BC ’17, SGA Representative
Michelle Depardieu, BC ’16, SGA Representative (through June 2016)
Research Assistant
Helen Cane, BC ’17
Administrative Support
DiAnn Pierce, Special Assistant to the President
Contact the Task Force
Email: [email protected]