Board of Trustees' Response to President Kington's Letter Regarding Divestment

Dear Grinnellians:

We are writing to you today to inform you that the Board of Trustees has received a letter from President Raynard S. Kington presenting a request from a substantial number of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents to divest from all investments in fossil fuels.

The role of the College’s trustees is, and always has been, to assure the “great and lasting good” of Grinnell College through our commitment to institutional stewardship, sound financial investments, and prudent management.

The Board of Trustees will refer the request to its Investment Committee, which is responsible for maintaining a policy of prudent investment in stocks, bonds, real assets, non-marketable securities such as private placements and limited partnerships, and other similar financial instruments, interests, and/or securities, subject to the approval of the Board of Trustees.

The Investment Committee will then await submission of a written request for divestment from the advocates of the proposed investment change, in accordance with its recently adopted sub-policy for handling all divestment requests.

Under the new policy, the Investment Committee will give serious consideration to any written divestment proposal that complies with the College's divestment policy and procedures at a subsequent in-person meeting. Once the Committee has completed its review, if the Committee agrees that a divestment decision should be made, it will submit a recommendation for divestment to the full Board.

Sincerely,

Patricia Jipp Finkelman '80, Chair of the Board of Trustees

Karen Shaff, Chair of the Investment Committee