responsible investment at tufts?
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Rachel Greenspan
Jun 29, 2012, 3:49:44 PM6/29/12
to tufts-o...@googlegroups.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Martin Bourqui <orga...@endowmentethics.org>
Date: Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 2:34 PM
Subject: responsible investment at tufts?
To: emil.clig...@tufts.edu, daniel_...@tufts.edu, natezm...@gmail.com, spencer...@tufts.edu, kum...@gmail.com, raea...@gmail.com, maximu...@gmail.com, atwo...@gmail.com, Lucas....@tufts.edu, Tamara...@tufts.edu, duncan....@tufts.edu, paul.c...@tufts.edu, Savann...@tufts.edu, Matthew.M...@tufts.edu, Silvia...@tufts.edu, mikewh...@gmail.com, Margare...@tufts.edu, eliza....@tufts.edu, bees...@gmail.com
Cc: Rachel Greenspan <racheleri...@gmail.com>
Hi there,
My name's Martin Bourqui, LA'09, and I was given your contact info by Rachel Greenspan as someone whom I should touch base with about an issue near to my heart: the Tufts endowment.
As a student, I was one of the founding members of STIR (Students at Tufts for Investment Responsibility -- i don't believe it exists anymore) and supported campaigns both before and after my time around getting Tufts to be a more transparent and socially/environmentally responsible investor of its endowment that would actually reflect its values of global citizenship (and not that of the companies it invests in, like Monsanto, Chevron, etc. -- the worst of the worst.) We received a lot of really valuable support from an organization called the Responsible Endowments Coalition (REC) which supports student activist campaigns around this issue nationwide and helped answer a lot of our questions.
Long story short, I've now been working with REC on their paid staff as an organizer for the past two years now, and having a blast supporting students at schools around the country on getting their universities to invest more in line with their own community's values and to stop destroying the planet. We helped support students to get the school to make a $500,000 bank of america divestment / community investment at the end of the 2011 school year, which was a nice, if very small, start.
But there's still a LOT to be done. I met Rachel at the New Economics Institute conference and we've been talking about how much work there is to do still at Tufts. I'm leaving REC at the end of this summer, after working on endowment issues for a little over four years, and while I'm amazed by how much progress the national movement for endowment ethics has made, I'm still frustrated at how little has been done at Tufts. Honestly, the biggest missing piece has been student awareness and interest in making this an issue people need to know about and take action. Based on the experience of, like, four generations of student activists I've worked with, it seems that the school's just not going to act on this out of the goodness of their own hearts, unless they're pushed.
So if any of you are interested, I'd love to talk to you more about this issue, my story, and how REC can support you all in the future. We have two really amazing and fun summer training programs coming up in July and August which you can learn more about here -- I would LOVE to have one or a few folks from Tufts join us. It would make me really happy.
Think about it, pass this email along to your peers if you'd like, and feel free to email me here or at my personal email (mbou...@gmail.com) if you want to talk more or learn more or ask questions. You can also talk to Phil Bene or Emily Lad '11, Nick Perricone '12, or Caroline Incledon '13, all of whom are friends of mine who you may know if you want to learn more from someone else's perspective.
Look forward to maybe starting a discussion here, talking with you one-on-one, or meeting one or two of you this summer, I hope!
Take care,
Martin
PS -- if any of you are on or have access to the Tisch scholars list and feel this is appropriate, I feel like that may be a good place to promote this message as well. Would appreciate your help fwding it along. Thanks.
--
Martin Bourqui
National Organizer
The Responsible Endowments Coalition
cell: 917.930.0123 | moveourmoney.info
facebook.com/endowmentethics
@endowmentethics | @martinbourqui
"The skills I learned have been integral to my organizing
and I strongly recommend it for any student that wants to
create change on their campus!"
--> Apply now for 2012 Summer Organizing Retreat!
From: Martin Bourqui <orga...@endowmentethics.org>
Date: Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 2:34 PM
Subject: responsible investment at tufts?
To: emil.clig...@tufts.edu, daniel_...@tufts.edu, natezm...@gmail.com, spencer...@tufts.edu, kum...@gmail.com, raea...@gmail.com, maximu...@gmail.com, atwo...@gmail.com, Lucas....@tufts.edu, Tamara...@tufts.edu, duncan....@tufts.edu, paul.c...@tufts.edu, Savann...@tufts.edu, Matthew.M...@tufts.edu, Silvia...@tufts.edu, mikewh...@gmail.com, Margare...@tufts.edu, eliza....@tufts.edu, bees...@gmail.com
Cc: Rachel Greenspan <racheleri...@gmail.com>
Hi there,
My name's Martin Bourqui, LA'09, and I was given your contact info by Rachel Greenspan as someone whom I should touch base with about an issue near to my heart: the Tufts endowment.
As a student, I was one of the founding members of STIR (Students at Tufts for Investment Responsibility -- i don't believe it exists anymore) and supported campaigns both before and after my time around getting Tufts to be a more transparent and socially/environmentally responsible investor of its endowment that would actually reflect its values of global citizenship (and not that of the companies it invests in, like Monsanto, Chevron, etc. -- the worst of the worst.) We received a lot of really valuable support from an organization called the Responsible Endowments Coalition (REC) which supports student activist campaigns around this issue nationwide and helped answer a lot of our questions.
Long story short, I've now been working with REC on their paid staff as an organizer for the past two years now, and having a blast supporting students at schools around the country on getting their universities to invest more in line with their own community's values and to stop destroying the planet. We helped support students to get the school to make a $500,000 bank of america divestment / community investment at the end of the 2011 school year, which was a nice, if very small, start.
But there's still a LOT to be done. I met Rachel at the New Economics Institute conference and we've been talking about how much work there is to do still at Tufts. I'm leaving REC at the end of this summer, after working on endowment issues for a little over four years, and while I'm amazed by how much progress the national movement for endowment ethics has made, I'm still frustrated at how little has been done at Tufts. Honestly, the biggest missing piece has been student awareness and interest in making this an issue people need to know about and take action. Based on the experience of, like, four generations of student activists I've worked with, it seems that the school's just not going to act on this out of the goodness of their own hearts, unless they're pushed.
So if any of you are interested, I'd love to talk to you more about this issue, my story, and how REC can support you all in the future. We have two really amazing and fun summer training programs coming up in July and August which you can learn more about here -- I would LOVE to have one or a few folks from Tufts join us. It would make me really happy.
Think about it, pass this email along to your peers if you'd like, and feel free to email me here or at my personal email (mbou...@gmail.com) if you want to talk more or learn more or ask questions. You can also talk to Phil Bene or Emily Lad '11, Nick Perricone '12, or Caroline Incledon '13, all of whom are friends of mine who you may know if you want to learn more from someone else's perspective.
Look forward to maybe starting a discussion here, talking with you one-on-one, or meeting one or two of you this summer, I hope!
Take care,
Martin
PS -- if any of you are on or have access to the Tisch scholars list and feel this is appropriate, I feel like that may be a good place to promote this message as well. Would appreciate your help fwding it along. Thanks.
--
Martin Bourqui
National Organizer
The Responsible Endowments Coalition
cell: 917.930.0123 | moveourmoney.info
facebook.com/endowmentethics
@endowmentethics | @martinbourqui
"The skills I learned have been integral to my organizing
and I strongly recommend it for any student that wants to
create change on their campus!"
--> Apply now for 2012 Summer Organizing Retreat!
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