Oh you’re one of “those” people. As soon as you used the word “transparency,” I stopped reading. The CIO’s job is to make Georgetown money. Frankly, I don’t care how he does it.

However, Georgetown’s investment policies regarding transparency have not changed at all since his 25 years being here, with, yet again, Georgetown receiving a failing grade in endowment transparency, due to a lack of public information (http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/2010/10/27/university-gets-a-b-grade-from-sustainable-endowments-institute/). Why the lack of transparency? Many reasons, I’m sure.

My “good riddance” wishes to Larry are, I suppose, based solely on his statements denying the importance of socially responsible investing at Georgetown, deemed a “moral imperative” by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, as well as by the Society of Jesus in the US. When faced with questions of socially responsible investing, and challenges that the so-called “Committee on Investments and Social Responsibility” was, in fact, a sham (not a committee to regulate endowment investments, as information on Georgetown websites used to lead one to believe), Georgetown and Kochard rose to the occasion by removing all mention of “Jesuit Values” and “Social Responsibility” from the Investment Office website.

As Dr. Porterfield once said, all the good Georgetown does has to be financed on something. For now, it is financed on completely unacceptable and immoral investment practices that are incompatible with Catholic social teaching and the mission of the Society of Jesus in the US. What bothers me is the hypocrisy — Georgetown constantly claims that it must strictly follow Catholic social teaching and values, however, only when it is convenient for the administration. In order to bring this university into line with other responsible Jesuit, Catholic, and non-religious institutions in the United States, we will need to adopt a policy of socially responsible investing. Many high-ranking universities in the US have such policies and their investment officers claim that socially responsible university endowments can both perform well (as is evidenced by their endowment transparency), and do good in the local and global communities. If socially responsible investing can be cast aside without a second glance, I will look forward to further erosion of Georgetown’s Catholic and Jesuit identity.

It was the 25 years prior to Kochard being hired, when there was no Chief Investment Officer (nor any discernible strategy around building the endowment through strategic investment) that were the real problem.