Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility
Mission
The principal mission of the Dartmouth College Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR) is to study proxy resolutions relating to important social issues and to make recommendations to Dartmouth College on how it should vote specific proxy resolutions for U.S. companies in which the College holds publicly traded shares. In addition, ACIR is charged with making recommendations to Dartmouth College regarding: the desirability of disclosing information regarding the College’s investment portfolio to its constituencies; the process by which the College determines its position with respect to proxy resolutions and the practices the College employs to express its positions; the guidance, if any, that the College’s investment advisors should be given to avoid selection of investment positions that could be deemed inconsistent with Dartmouth’s mission; and the possibilities for education of students and other interested parties regarding the goals and constraints of the College’s investment portfolio, including through initial review of broader socially-driven investment matters as provided below and in accordance with the Board of Trustees Statement on Investment and Social Responsibility Issues.
ACIR meets throughout the year to accomplish its missions and to develop operational guidelines to make proxy voting and other recommendations to the College throughout the year. For optimum transparency and clarity, explanatory background and the current guidelines on the ACIR’s charge and responsibilities, membership, calendar, and reporting are included below, subject to ongoing refinement by ACIR.
Background
Dartmouth’s endowment represents funds donated to Dartmouth which have been invested and stewarded over the years to support current students and faculty as well as future generations of students and scholars. The primary investment objective of the endowment is to generate long-term, inflation-adjusted investment returns in excess of the annual distribution to preserve intergenerational equity for the institution. Dartmouth’s position regarding its investment assets is to maintain a flexible investment mandate to maximize the earning power of these assets.
The majority of Dartmouth’s investments are invested through funds managed by external investment managers. Dartmouth is therefore not the shareholder of record for securities held by the funds and, as a result, Dartmouth does not receive a proxy ballot to vote nor have any other discretion over those individual holdings.
Charge and Responsibilities
At all times, the ACIR is charged with complying with the Board of Trustees Statement on Investment and Social Responsibility Issues (SISR), under the direction of and with the approval of the President or designee. As provided in the SISR, Dartmouth’s Board ultimately has sole responsibility for all investment matters, including determination of socially-driven investment issues that arise as a result of Dartmouth’s investments.
The ACIR has the following responsibilities:
1. The ACIR shall provide direction on proxy voting related to environmental, social and governance-related (“ESG”) matters for directly held equity securities. To do so, the ACIR shall develop ESG proxy voting guidelines.
2. The ACIR shall conduct an initial review of broader socially-driven investment matters in accordance with the SISR, as follows:
a. The ACIR shall review proposals for dissociation from investment (“divestment”) in a particular company, industry, or geography, in response to social, environmental, or governance-related considerations related to investments in particular companies, if and only if the ACIR determines in writing that each proposal meets all the following requirements:
i. The proposal must describe in writing, with appropriate documentation, how the criteria for the extraordinary action of divestment outlined in the SISR are met.
ii. The proposal must describe in writing, with appropriate documentation, concrete and detailed evidence of how the Dartmouth community, including students, faculty, staff, and alumni, has come to consensus to support the proposal.
b. The ACIR shall review additional investment proposals meeting all the above requirements, as directed by the President or designee.
c. Recommendations from ACIR regarding a) and b) above shall be referred to the Board of Trustees if the President determines that action is warranted. The Board has sole responsibility for investment matters.
Membership
The ACIR will be appointed annually by the President and will include stakeholders across the Dartmouth community. The ACIR will include, but is not limited to, students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The President or designee shall appoint one member of the ACIR to Chair the ACIR and the President will appoint one member to prepare confidential minutes for the exclusive reference of the ACIR, the President or designee, The Board of Trustees or designee, and others as identified by the President or designee. The ACIR shall have a target of five to seven members, with lower or higher numbers in the sole discretion of the President or designee, who shall also have the sole discretion to remove members via written notification to such member(s).
Calendar
The committee will meet at least two times annually, in advance of the spring proxy calendar.
In addition, the committee will convene on an ad hoc basis if requested by the President or designee to consider matters of socially responsible investment that meet the above criteria, including divestment.
Reporting – Disclosure Policy
- Members of the Dartmouth community may review a hard copy list of publicly traded securities registered in Dartmouth College’s name by requesting an advance appointment from the Investment Office at ACIR@dartmouth.edu between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on business days. Members of the Dartmouth community include students, faculty, administrators, and alumni.
- The ACIR will publish an annual report of its actions, which will be publicly available. These reports can be found below.
Abstention Policy
- Dartmouth College owns shares of corporations which are publicly traded. It is anticipated that shareholder initiated ESG proxy resolutions will be filed each year. When a shareholder declines to exercise its right to vote its proxy resolutions, the shareholder’s vote with respect to that resolution is automatically counted in support of management. ACIR cannot review and make recommendations on every single proxy resolution that it receives due to the constraints of time and resources. ACIR believes that its existence means that the College wishes to take a position on proxy issues and that the Committee’s inability to provide specific advice with regard to a proxy resolution should not be construed as a vote in favor or against the resolution. Therefore, ACIR recommends that the College vote to abstain on every ESG proxy resolution that it does not specifically address and make a voting recommendation upon.
- This Abstention Policy was adopted on February 1, 2005 by ACIR.
Executive Summaries
2022-2023 ACIR Executive Summary and Appendices (PDF)
2021 ACIR Executive Summary and Appendices (PDF)
2020 ACIR Executive Summary and Appendices (PDF)
2019 ACIR Executive Summary and Appendices (PDF)
2018 ACIR Executive Summary and Appendices (PDF)
2017 ACIR Executive Summary and Appendices (PDF)
Contact
Contact ACIR's Executive Administrator, Jordan O’Regan , at ACIR@dartmouth.edu.