Dear Members of the USF Community,
After months of careful consideration, the University of San Francisco is making changes to its endowment holdings. These decisions were decided by the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees. The changes include:
- Effective June 1, 2025, the university will no longer be investing in separately managed accounts (i.e., will not own individual publicly traded securities).
- Moving forward, USF’s endowment will be invested in index funds or other commingled funds, in which it will not be possible to make individual security selections.
- USF will be maintaining the Social Responsibility Considerations section of its Investment Policy Statement, which was revised before the USF Socially Responsible Investment Task Force was convened to include that "Ethical, moral and social considerations will be incorporated as part of the investment process.” The statement is provided to the University’s outside investment managers to guide their evaluation of investment opportunities. The students advocating for Palestine had demanded changes to this policy, and that request was denied.
The task force, a representative body comprising students, faculty, and staff, was convened in late 2024 and met three times in the fall semester to review our endowment holdings and investment policies. The students advocating for Palestine demanded that USF divest of four individual companies, change its socially responsible investing policy, change language throughout the Investment Policy Statement, and be allowed to regularly monitor and oversee the university’s portfolio. The Investment Committee of the Board denied everything, although it agreed to shift the two separately managed accounts that held the objectionable securities to mutual funds or index funds with similar investment mandates.
Although the public announcement about this decision occurred in the same general time frame as a small campus protest on Tuesday, April 29, the timing was largely coincidental: The decision to move from separately managed accounts to mutual funds/index funds was finalized well before that week’s events.
As a purpose-led university, USF seeks to use all our resources, including our endowment, to change the world for the better.
Sincerely,
John P. Fitzgibbons, S.J.
Interim President and Chief Mission Officer