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NACUBO Notes

October 2019


Sustainability Checklist for Campuses

At the 2019 annual meeting, NACUBO’s Sustainability Advisory Panel (SAP) unrolled its draft sustainability checklist for campuses to evaluate their overall sustainability success. This checklist includes various categories within planning and administration, academics, engagement, and operations to help institutions increase their environmental and financial sustainability.

SAP has created this simple list to trigger business and finance offices into discussion and action. According to Amir Mohammadi, SAP’s chair and the senior vice president for administration, global engagement, economic development and chief innovation officer at Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pa., “While some campuses actively have sustainability and the reduction of carbon in their primary mission, we need all campuses to actively improve their sustainability and reduce their carbon footprint. Higher education must lead the charge, and if not us, then who? And when it comes to climate, if not now, then when?”

SAP encourages business officers to review the list, incorporate it into campus conversations, ask staff pertinent questions, and ultimately take action to advance the financial and environmental sustainability of their campuses.

“Luther College has developed a robust sustainability program in most of these categories, but if I was at a small institution looking to get started in this work, this checklist would be very helpful,” says Eric Runestad, vice president for finance and administration, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. “Smaller institutions face a greater challenge in this area. With limited resources and more existential pressures facing small, tuition-dependent institutions, the work on sustainability can be relegated to a lesser priority. However, a great deal of the work on sustainability serves the bottom line twice over—financial and social impact.”

Download the checklist to measure your campus sustainability efforts today.


NACUBO Fellows Conclude Their Year

NACUBO President and CEO Susan Whealler Johnston (left) acknowledges the Fellows’ accomplishments at the NACUBO 2019 Annual Meeting. Credit: Event Photography of North America Corp. (EPNAC)

The 2018–19 cohort of NACUBO Fellows celebrated the closing of their program year at the NACUBO 2019 Annual Meeting in Austin. Over the course of the year, the 11 NACUBO Fellows worked together with one another and with higher education leaders to deepen their knowledge of business management, institutional communications, and the CBO role. The Fellows also enhanced their leadership skills as they learned about the core competencies needed to succeed as CBOs.

For their culminating project, the Fellows collaborated in small groups to address an institutional challenge in the form of a case study and prepared solutions for presentation to an “executive council” that included current and former NACUBO board members.


Webcast on SRI

To learn more about socially responsible investing, consider viewing this on-demand webcast.

Socially responsible investing. Do college and university endowments that adopt SRI policies experience lower investment returns? Over the past decade, many nonprofits have instituted SRI programs within their investment portfolios. However, some college and university investment committees have been reluctant to fully adopt SRI strategies, fearing they may lead to lower overall returns.

This webcast recording describes new research showing the effects of SRI on endowment returns, explains new strategies that might help endowments improve their SRI performance, and discusses the factors that investment committees and endowment managers should consider when applying new SRI principles in their portfolios.

Visit us online to view on-demand recordings or to register for upcoming webcasts.


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