Brown corporation defers vote on coal investments

PROVIDENCE – The Corporation of Brown University last month approved more than $38 million in donations to the university, while taking no action on a proposal to end the school’s investments in coal companies.
At its annual Commencement Weekend meeting, the corporation accepted a host of donations, including a single anonymous gift of $13.9 million that will benefit Brown’s Donor-Advised Fund.
Other donations included two private gifts of $4 million each to create endowed professorships in the Watson Institute for International Studies, a gift of $3 million from anonymous Brown parents to foster collaboration between the university and top institutions in Brazil and more than $2 million from a pair of 1988 graduates to benefit the men’s and women’s lacrosse and crew programs.
The corporation deferred action on a proposal for the university to divest from companies involved in coal mining and consumption until its next meeting in October, saying the issue required more study.
The corporation also named two new members to its 12-member Board of Fellows. The new fellows, who will serve 11-year terms, are Richard Friedman, head of merchant banking at Goldman Sachs & Co., and U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson, of Cranston. •

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