Listen to the Regents' Committee on Investments, Feb. 26, 2016

Yours truly has finally had a chance to catch up with the Regents. As we often remind our readers, the Regents' view of "archiving" is to keep recordings of their meetings for only one year. The only way to preserve them indefinitely is to record them in real time, i.e., 1 hour of meeting requires 1 hour of recording. Since yours truly has other things to do, there are often delays before he can find the time. [End of rant.]

The Committee on Investments first heard from student groups pushing for divestment from fossil fuels and Wells Fargo Bank (because it does business with private prison companies). A reminder that the Regents have already divested from tobacco, guns, coal, and direct investments in prisons. It appeared that the demand regarding Wells Fargo involved not just direct holdings but also indirect, i.e., instructing the many money managers to which UC outsources to divest from Wells Fargo.

The rest of the meeting was devoted to a review of investment returns through Dec. 31, 2015. It will surprise no one that the returns were disappointing, given the behavior of the stock market. Generally, UC's chief investment officer has been pushing to downsize the number of outside money managers and to have separate allocations for the pension, endowment, and other funds. He has also proposed changes in investment guidelines that would provide more flexibility - something the Committee seems likely to grant when a formal vote is taken at a later meeting.

You can hear the audio of the meeting at: