The University’s mission includes education, research, creative expression, and provision of healthcare. These activities are conducted according to a set of core values, which include freedom of expression, equality of persons, respect for cultural diversity, dissemination of knowledge in the public interest, fair labor standards, human rights, democratic governance and environmental sustainability. The University’s investment policy seeks to assure the consistency of institutional support strategies with core values.

The University invests along with peer institutions with asset managers in long-term investment pools. These managers are accountable to uphold norms of corporate social responsibility. It is the University’s intention that its resources be invested in ways that are ethical, sustainable and consistent with relevant laws and regulations. To this end, the University includes questions on corporate social responsibility as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion in an annual questionnaire directed to investment managers.

The Investment Office will respond to written inquiries from members of the University of Rochester community (students, faculty, staff and alumni) relating to specific investment holdings within the endowment. The University does not release a list of its investment holdings, but will acknowledge, upon written request, whether or not the University is the owner of a specific security. The Investment Office will also submit to the Investment Committee of the University’s Board of Trustees, on a case-by-case basis, requests for action pertaining to specific securities.