Debunking divestment

Editorial: On the right track

Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) has made meaningful progress towards realizing the campaign platforms its members ran on last spring. We commend BSG for actively pursuing projects including bringing LSAT and MCAT prep courses to the College, extending Thanksgiving break, and making the proceedings of the student government more transparent to the Bowdoin community. It is a mark of BSG’s commitment to maintaining accountability that the Executive Committee provided a comprehensive report of its progress to the Orient at the start of this semester. BSG introduced a new website at the beginning of this academic year, which was the product of much time and effort within the organization. The site’s launch was a positive step toward establishing standards of institutional accountability and record keeping that will serve generations of students to come. Even small projects, like subsidizing discounted movie tickets to Regal Cinemas and Brunswick Taxi services, and reviving Winter Weekend, evidence the fact that BSG spent the fall working hard. BSG President Dani Chediak has put forward a proposal to bring graduate school test prep courses to campus, one of the promises she made to the senior class last spring. We urge the administration to accept her proposal so that students do not have to pay out of pocket for help preparing for graduate school.

Editorial: Proceed with caution

Campus is changing. Projects are underway at the the Naval Air Station Brunswick, the Stevens Retirement Home, the former Longfellow School, and beyond as part of the College’s beautification plan. As Bowdoin takes on these initiatives, it should keep in mind the importance of maintaining a cohesive campus. The College purchased Stevens Retirement Home on Harpswell Road in November, with the intent to convert it into a dorm as soon as next year. This acquisition will alleviate the housing crunch of the past few years, though it does not seem wise to make repeated reactionary purchases to solve this problem. Bowdoin should act sustainably in its execution of the many development projects currently on the docket. One of the things that makes our school so unique is the bounded feeling of our campus, which can easily be traversed in 10 minutes. Development that sprawls far beyond the Quad may threaten the close-knit environment we currently enjoy, and will increase our energy demands.

Editorial

This piece represents the opinion of The Bowdoin Orient editorial board.

February 8, 2013

In December, this editorial board argued that the merits of divestment from fossil fuel companies were impossible to evaluate so long as data on how the College’s endowment is invested remained obscure. Now that we have the facts, the case for divestment has little ground to stand on.

About 1.4 percent of Bowdoin’s $902.4 million endowment is invested in fossil fuel companies. If the College were to divest, a full quarter of the endowment would have to be transferred away from high-performing commingled funds. This would mean lower annual returns, a lower operating budget, and a big hit to the endowment overall.

If the College had invested exclusively in fossil free funds, its average annual rate of return would have been 5 percent lower over the past decade, and Bowdoin’s endowment would be at least $100 million smaller.

Annual returns on the endowment allow the College to function as it does. Each year, Bowdoin spends a portion of the endowment on the operational budget, which we hope to recoup in annual returns. Despite what the size of the football team’s budget might suggest, Bowdoin does not have money to waste.The losses incurred from divestment would have to be compensated for elsewhere, likely by cuts to financial aid, staff salaries or both. However noble a cause divestment may be, these are not sacrifices we are willing to make, and the students campaigning for divestment should not be so cavalier about the implications of their proposal.

We agree with Green Bowdoin Alliance that eliminating the consumption of fossil fuels is a crucial goal that must be achieved in the immediate future. But this does not mean Bowdoin should lead the charge. If the College does elect to divest, it will be a meaningful gesture that is unlikely to impact long-term change. The combined investments of all college endowments in the country make up only 0.1 percent of total investments in U.S. oil and gas industries.

Climate change is an unfortunate reality that few on this campus would refute, and we have already begun to see its effects in unusual weather patterns and natural disasters around the world. But divesting would do virtually nothing to abate carbon emissions, and would hurt the Bowdoin community much more than it would help combat climate change.

We commend the students involved with the Green Bowdoin Alliance for their persistence in pursuing action. Their commitment to sustainability is laudable, and we urge them to continue pushing Bowdoin for more practical ways of mitigating climate change. The College has invested over $11 million in sustainable initiatives in the last five years, and the Green Bowdoin Alliance should work with administrators to find solutions that make sense for the campus.

Instead of offering up the endowment for the sake of a symbolic gesture, the College should instead continue its efforts to maximize returns and put that money to work for pragmatic sustainability projects.

The editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, which is composed of Nora Biette-Timmons, Garrett Casey, Linda Kinstler, Sam Miller, Sam Weyrauch and Kate Witteman.

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