Representatives from both the Stanford Coalition for Investment Disclosure or SCID and Stanford Students for Relief or SSR presented to the Graduate Student Council at its meeting last night. The GSC also discussed a new way to spread the word about the upcoming GSC elections that will take place next quarter.

SCID speaker Ryan Schwartz spoke about Stanford’s endowment and how it is spent. He argued that the endowment, which is currently $12.2 billion, is mostly invested in companies for profit.

According to Schwartz, Stanford is among the top two percent of colleges in the country when it comes to investment profit, but the University does not disclose its investments to the public. The University’s Board of Trustees can demand that investment information be disclosed, but it has chosen not to, Schwartz said.

The SCID was founded following Stanford’s investment in companies that supported apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s and companies that used Burmese slave labor in the mid-1990s, according to Schwartz.

Students are now able to file complaints concerning University investments through the Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility, which then reviews companies and reports its findings to the Board of Trustees. Because Stanford is a non-profit and invests in companies indirectly through other funds, it is not forced to file reports regarding specific investments.

“We need the GSC to endorse the disclosure of public and private equity, as well as the reform of the oversight system,” Schwartz said.

He recommended that a bill be drawn up as an official GSC-supported statement on the issue.

Council members voiced their concerns that public disclosure of University investments could hurt investment returns since people seeing what companies Stanford invested in could take advantage of the information for their own financial benefit.

The GSC members decided to form a committee to further address the topic.

Mechanical engineering graduate student Srihari Yamanoor from the SSR reported that the University has already given $55,000 to Save the Children, a charity for tsunami relief. The charity has now received as many donations as it needs and is no longer accepting funds.

Accordingly, the SSR is currently raising money for speakers to come to inform students about disasters. For instance, the group hopes to host eyewitnesses of the tsunami in the future.

“The SSR is not just for reaction to disasters, but rather to spread awareness and educate students about them,” Yamanoor said.

The GSC plans to sell at least 100 tickets for an upcoming talk entitled “Expanding the Frontiers of Modern Science” featuring four Stanford Nobel laureates — Economics Prof. Kenneth Arrow, Graduate School of Business Prof. William Sharpe and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Profs. Richard Taylor and Martin Perl. The talk will be held March 1, and ticket sales will go toward funding future SSR events.

Lastly, GSC members proposed a plan informing students about upcoming elections — Chapstick. The lip balm will feature candidate-application deadlines and voting times on its outer case.

“Chapstick is something people have in their hand, in their car, in their purse,” said GSC President Moriah Thomason. “It’s a good way to get the word out.”