The Public Interest Investment Advisory Committee (PIIAC) — a group of students, faculty and staff that determines whether the University’s Board of Trustees is investing the school’s endowment in a socially responsible manner — is currently formalizing its procedures and guidelines before allowing members of the Hopkins community to come forward with investment proposals.
The University formed a similar investment committee in 1978, and it remained active through the late 1990s. According to Paul Pineau, the vice provost for strategic initiatives, the new PIIAC was formed in part because Refuel Our Future, a student activist group, wants the University to divest its endowment from fossil fuels.
“The University decided that reconstituting the Committee would be helpful in addressing the issues raised by students about fossil fuels, but also other issues of substantial social concern that might arise,” Pineau wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Committee Chair Jon Faust, an economics professor, said PIIAC is creating procedures for proposal acceptance.
“The trustees have given us some instructions, and part of the those instructions were to fill out some guidelines for proposals and exactly how our review process would work,” Faust said. “We’re now finalizing our procedures.”
Once the procedures for debate and guidelines for proposals are finalized, PIIAC will begin accepting proposals. According to Faust, the committee will be ready to start that process in the near future.
Faust said all students, faculty and staff are welcome to come forward with proposals for PIIAC. When people submit proposals, there will be no ceiling on the amount of funds that they are asking the University to consider investing.
The committee is composed of nine faculty and staff members from multiple University schools and offices, as well as three student members According to Pineau, Provost and Senior President for Academic Affairs Robert Lieberman and Daniel Ennis, the senior vice president for finance and administration, selected the committee members.
“Over 100 students, across our campuses and divisions, applied. The University was looking for people who displayed a thoughtful approach to complex issues and are committed to considered deliberation,” Pineau wrote.
Cynthia Jin, a student at the School of Medicine, said she feels that the faculty committee members value her opinions.
“I have especially noticed an appreciation for the perspective of students. During several discussions, non-student members have explicitly brought up, ‘how would students respond to this,’ or ‘what would make sense for students?’ I feel certain that the committee will be one that encourages and values student input,” Jin wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Junior Jenny Park said she joined the committee to learn more about the financial and social effects of the University’s investments.
“I wanted to join this committee because I wanted a more hands-on view of what was going on in the University. Personally, I am a beneficiary of the endowed scholarships, so I was curious to know how the University managed its endowment funds,” Park wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
According to Park, the application process to join the committee was neither complicated nor lengthy.
“I submitted a statement of interest and a resume to the Office of the Provost. After a few weeks, I received an invitation to serve on the PIIAC,” Park said.
Faust said there is no set time for how long the committee would be able to debate a given proposal.
“We’re committed to doing it promptly but [also doing] whatever it takes to be thorough, as far as hearing the discussion and making an opinion,” Faust said. “Some topics would be more complicated than others. I hope we can be expeditious, but we’ll have to see what the proposal is.”
With the school year winding down, Faust is unsure whether PIIAC will continue to operate during the summer months or during future school holidays.
“We’d need to have a quorum to do official business [and] that can be difficult in the summer at a university. But we [PIACC] don’t have an official position on when we’re on vacation and when we’re not,” Faust said.
According to Faust, PIIAC wants to keep the Hopkins community informed about its work and welcomes feedback.
“We’re going to try to be very open, and we’re going to try to post as much as we can on this website about our business, about our minutes, about decisions we’ve made, about the proposals that’ve come in,” Faust said. “Folks in the University community would be able offer their opinions. The idea is to engage in a fulsome dialogue where the community is moved to action.”
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