April 4th Letter to TIAA-CREF
| Amy Muska O'Brien Dear Ms. O'Brien: In most of my correspondence, I write only indirectly representing Make TIAA-CREF Ethical. I write you now after discussions within our group and in my capacity as coordinator. Also, I am writing you as point person for TIAA-CREF. We thank you for your message of March 3rd; however, we find it very similar to the message of the February 2nd meeting and not too different from TIAA-CREF's communication over the years. We have heard before variations of "these matters are complicated; we ourselves can't make the decision; things will take awhile." After many months, TIAA-CREF has yet to say how it will focus attention on the egregious behaviors of our target companies and when it will incorporate social venture capital and community investment into the Social Choice Account (and address other related specifics of the SCSC effort). Accordingly: · We need written confirmation by the time of your policy document completion in May that TIAA-CREF will meet with representatives from Nike, Coca-Cola, Costco, Wal-Mart, Chevron, and Philip Morris/Altria-- and that a representative from our coalition will be able to attend these meetings. · We need written documentation by that same date of TIAA-CREF's commitment to incorporate community investment into the Social Choice Account and to fully investigate incorporation of social venture capital. The coalition is looking for substantive efforts by TIAA-CREF to engage these corporations in a meaningful dialogue over the issues discussed. While we will begin to restart efforts again soon, we are prepared, come May 10, to intensify our public efforts and to broaden our coalition. We appreciate your expressed sensitivity to the important issues with which we are dealing; but we need to see more.
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