Brief History

Brief History of Investment Responsibility at Stanford

• 1968-1971 Development of Stanford's Investment Responsibility commitment, process and structure - With national and campus civil rights and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations across the country, Stanford’s Board of Trustees begin discussing issues of ethical endowment investments and corporate responsibility.  In 1971, with the Trustees’ adoption of the Statement on Investment Responsibility,Stanford became the first major academic institutional governing body to create a mandate, structure, and process for addressing allegations of corporate “substantial social injury.”  The structure included implementation of a Commission on Investment Responsibility (CIR), later renamed the Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing (APIR-L), to receive and review concerns and make action recommendations to the Trustees as endowment fiduciaries.[1]

• Human Rights – For more than four decades, the University has continued to address allegations of human rights abuses and the part corporations played by direct or indirect action or inaction, from Apartheid South Africa to Nigeria, Burma, Sudan, and more recently, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  APIR-L continues to develop, recommend, and apply Stanford core social issue policies and proxy voting guidelines, corporate engagement, disinvestment, and divestment (only as a last resort) policies to remedy confirmed allegations of “substantial social injury.”

• Diversity and Non-discrimination – In 1994 Stanford adopted its first policy and proxy voting guidelines to address allegations of discrimination.  The recommendations have been in compliance with U.S. laws supporting equal opportunity.  Over the last sixty years in the U.S., recognition and interpretation of discrimination types have evolved and APIR-L responded with amendments to Stanford’s Investment Responsibility policies and proxy voting guidelines to address those changes, most recently in the area of sexual orientation and gender expression.

• Environmental Sustainability – Since the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in the Gulf of Alaska, the APIR-L has recommended and the Trustees have approved corporate engagement as well as policies and proxy voting guidelines to address allegations of “substantial social injuries” in such areas as toxic spills, climate change and alternative energy.

• Labor Equity – In 2005 the President’s Office asked the Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility to develop a Stanford Labor Code of Conduct for the University’s licensed logo apparel manufacturers.  The Trustees approved the first Labor Policy Statement and Proxy Voting Guideline in 2009.

• Alcohol and Tobacco – During the 1990s, the APIR-L focused on the issue of health risks and illegal sales and marketing of alcohol and tobacco products to minors.  Stanford implemented many proxy voting guidelines and engaged corporations in an effort to end injuries cause by company products.  In 1998, Stanford ended investment in core tobacco companies.