Dispelling Myths
full version
Myth: University-based Socially Responsible Investing is all about forcing a particular ideology on an entire campus community.
Reality: On the contrary, an SRI campaign's focus is most often to promote the university’s pre-existing mission statement and core values. What better way to do this than by ensuring our investment policies agree with the standards we already claim as our own!
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Myth: SRI campaigns are just blaming games that consistently “pick on” the administration to avoid any personal responsibility.
Reality: First and foremost, we are not here to bash the administration…we’re here to help them improve their investment policies. In fact, part of SRI’s mission is to maximize financial gain – and we mean that! Though it is possible for advocates of investment policy change to ignore their own duty to live a socially responsible lifestyle (surprisingly, we are human!), most of us do our best to be conscious consumers across the board.
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Myth: SRI is just a bunch of tedious work that can only exist so long as a university is engaged in unethical investments.
Reality: SRI campaigns are definitely a lot of work BUT it can be a lot of fun too! Our campaigns often send us across the country, if not around the world, giving us the opportunity to network with diverse groups of individuals. Regardless of your field of study, it really is an amazing learning opportunity. Furthermore, SRI is not just about replacing “bad” investments – it’s about enhancing “good” ones too! Put it this way, until we solve world hunger AND ensure all earth’s resources are renewable – SSRI won’t run out of exciting things to do :)