THE TUFTS DAILY Est

Where You Mostly Sunny Read It First 30/20 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LXVII, NUMBER 23 TUEsday, FEBRUARY 25, 2014 TUFTSDAILY.COM University will not divest Arianna Huffington to speak at Murrow Forum Editor-in-chief and President of the Huffington Post Media Group Arianna from fossil fuels ‘at this time’ Huffington will address the Tufts commu- BY VICTORIA LEISTMAN comes to important decisions within the nity at the ninth annual Edward R. Murrow Daily Editorial Board university.” Forum on Issues in Journalism, accord- Katie Walsh (F ’13), who was initially ing to Director of the Communications University President Anthony Monaco in chosen to serve on the working group and Media Studies (CMS) Program Julie a Feb. 12 announcement stated that the uni- before she graduated last spring, said that Dobrow. versity will adapt three recommendations she feels the members of the group rep- “We always try to get an A-list journal- from the Tufts Divestment Working Group. resent only a minority of the community. ist to come for our Edward R. Murrow The Board of Trustees, during their Feb. The composition reflected an imbalance Forum on Issues in Journalism and it 8 meeting, agreed to adapt the recommen- in the decision-making process and disre- seemed to us that while we have had dations, which include refraining from gard of the recommendations made from a lot of television journalists who have divestment at this time, creating a separate Tufts Divest, she said. come, we have had far fewer print jour- Sustainability Fund — which would allow “Everyone was cherry-picked by the nalists,” Dobrow said. “Of course now donors to ensure that that their contribu- university,” Walsh said. “From the get-go, that online news is such an incredibly tions are not invested in fossil fuels — and the formation was decided. We had other important part of the whole complexion pursuing other courses of action to expand recommendations, other professors, other of news, we could think of few people climate change awareness. knowledgeable staff — folks with a lot of who have had more of an impact on Monaco established the Divestment expertise and background in business. We online news than Arianna Huffington.” Working Group last April in response to recommended different Trustee members. Online platforms, like the Huffington COUrtesY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS a written proposal that members of the From the initiation of the working group, Post, have sped up the news cycle, which Huffington will speak at the Murrow Forum student-run organization, Tufts Divest for it was very much a university-driven and Dobrow said she is interested to hear in April. Our Future, had presented to the Investment university-decided process.” more about from Huffington. Committee of the Board of Trustees in Weilerstein, who took Walsh’s place on “I’m hoping she will talk with us about izing news and I think that is something February 2013, according to Tufts Divest the group when she graduated, said that her perceptions about what online news that potentially the Huffington Post does member Devyn Powell, a senior. he also felt from the onset that the group has meant for all of the competition as well. ... I wanted to have Ariana Executive Vice President Patricia Campbell, was created without the intention of seri- in print broadcasting and other online Huffington come here because just like who served on the working group, said ously considering student voices on the sources,” Dobrow said. “Does online Edward R. Murrow, she in her own way that each member was chosen to create an issue of divestment. news continue to democratize news for has really been a trailblazer in the way accurate representation of students, fac- “The way that they set up the working us? Does it mean we increasingly can that news has been presented to us. ulty, Trustees and the administration. The group [and] the questions that they asked read about or tune into only the news According to her bio on the Huffington 11 members included were Trustees Laurie going into it were meant to basically cut off that which we basically already agree?” Post website, Huffington won a Pulitzer Gabriel (J ‘76), Bill O’Reilly (A ‘77; A13P) the option of divestment, were meant to Dobrow emphasized that both Murrow Prize for national reporting in 2012 and and Andrew Safran (A ‘76; F ‘77); Advisory show why divestment wasn’t a good option and Huffington have participated in revo- was named to Forbes Most Powerful Committee on Endowment Responsibility or wasn’t a good idea, instead of looking for lutionary changes to news media. Women list in 2013. (ACER) student representative Andrew Peng, ways that we could make it work,” he said. “One of the things that characterized This year’s forum will be held at 12 p.m. a senior; Tufts Divest student representatives Campbell said that all members were Murrow was that he did a lot of really on April 16 in the Cohen Auditorium. junior Lila Kohrman-Glaser, sophomore Ben actively heard and respected during the cutting edge things in his day,” she said. Weilerstein and Powell; and faculty members working group’s seven meetings. “When news went from radio to televi- Kelly Sims Gallagher, R. Bruce Hitchner and “I would say it was a very open dialogue,” sion, he was right there making that — by Justin Rheingold Ann Rappaport, in addition to Campbell. she said. “I think it was clear from the start transition, he was very important in that. Hitchner said that all entities serving on that the students did have a particular point [Murrow] was amazing about contextual- the group approached the three charter of view and were advocating from the point points with different perspectives and levels of view of divestment. Everyone was able to of understanding, but that their collabora- participate fully.” about it, we were all in favor of doing that efits and feasibility of that model. tion was necessary. Gabriel, the chair of the Board of Trustees’ — provided that it made sense for the uni- Hitchner explained that the model was “I thought engagement [of] students, fac- Investment Committee, agreed, and said the versity,” she said. put together to look at and understand how ulty and members of the Board of Trustees working group took on a serious tone. Campbell said that employees of the the endowment is managed, and revealed and administration was a good mix for this “I think that everybody on the commit- school’s Investment Office put together a the complexity of the divestment concept. purpose, and an essential mix,” he said. tee came into the conversation recogniz- model representing the effects that divest- “Rather than to simply say if [divestment] “It’s important that all those perspectives ing that global climate change is a serious ment would have on the university. The is good or bad, we could actually put togeth- be continually taken into account when it issue and that if we could do something working group then discussed the risks, ben- er a model of what divestment would look like,” he said. “Initially, my view was that this might be best done by an outside firm. But the resources for doing that were not available, and so it was done in house by the Investment Office. It’s probably fair to say that it’s hard to have gotten a totally objective perspective on that, but there was undoubtedly some risk no matter what you did with divestment.” According to Monaco’s announcement, the model revealed that even the most con- servative divestment approach would affect 60 percent of the university’s investment strategies and result in a $75 million loss to the endowment. Weilerstein said that he was frustrat- ed that so much time and weight was given to the model conducted by the Investment Office, instead of seeking out third-party consultants and considering alternative routes. “Their energy was very focused on prov- ing how we couldn’t do it, not [on] finding how we could do it,” he said. According to Weilerstein, alumnus Michael Kramer (A ‘88) of Natural Investments, LLC was consulted by the working group and offered alternatives that were not taken. “They spent so much time with this model,” Weilerstein said. “And yet [Kramer] identified managers that we can begin to switch to and [he] identified alternatives that we have. We know we can’t divest all of ZHUANgcheN JJ ZhoU / The TUfts DaiLY Boston-area students stood with pro-divestment signs outside a Jan. 24 meeting between Tufts Divest For Our Future and the Board of see DIVEST, page 2 Trustees at the Tufts School of Dental Medicine campus. Inside this issue Today’s sections From episode one, News 1 Op-Ed 9 Students, professors ‘House of Cards’ sea- discuss prevalence of son two keeps its audi- Features 3 Comics 12 protests on campus. ence on the edge of its Arts & Living 5Classifieds 13 seats. Editorial | Op-Ed 8 Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see ARTS, page 5 2 THE TUF T S DAILY NEWS Tuesday, February 25, 2014 Tufts Divest not giving up hopes on campaign ing emission reductions and research, tutions go beyond just their fiduciary inter- Campbell said. ests and that institutions like Tufts may not “There are things that are truly positive benefit from making decisions on a purely actions the university is taking to operate economic basis. in a way that’s really responsible,” Campbell “I mean, after all, the university invests said. “I think that the university will ... time in programs inside the institution [that] encourage its community to be supportive don’t make money,” he said.

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