Northwestern owns more than $15 million worth of stock in Black Stone Minerals, one of the largest oil and gas mineral and royalty companies in the country, according to the University’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month.

Chief Investment Officer Will McLean said the University has held shares of Black Stone Minerals for several years.

The University was required to report these shares to the SEC this year because under federal law, institutional investment managers must file with the SEC if their organization holds more than $100 million in certain types of securities.

McLean said NU hit the $100 million threshold after Roberta Buffett Elliott (Weinberg ’54) donated shares in Berkshire Hathaway, of which her brother Warren Buffett is CEO, to NU last year.

In the fall, the University signed President Barack Obama’s American Campuses Act on Climate Pledge and announced its intent to sign the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing in November.

Christina Cilento, a spokeswoman for Fossil Free NU, a student divestment movement calling for the University to remove its investments from coal and other fossil fuels, said although she was disheartened to hear the University has a large position in Black Stone, she was happy the filing rule allows students to know more about NU’s investments.

“It’s nice to know we can find out a little bit more about the University’s investment,” the SESP junior said. “I just wish there were more positive things to report.”

The group will meet with McLean and three members of the Board of Trustees on Wednesday to discuss fossil fuel divestment and socially responsible investment, Cilento said. Fossil Free NU has met with members of the Board of Trustees three times since November 2014 to discuss the University’s investments in fossil fuels, she said.

“They have a positive impact,” McLean said of the group. “The fossil fuel conversations … played a role in our decision to sign on to the UNPRI.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, Cilento said the group will ask to bring some of its members to the full meeting of the Board of Trustees in March to deliver a presentation on responsible investment, with the goal of pushing the board to vote on divestment from coal at the end of the year.

McCormick graduate student Shane Patel, Fossil Free NU’s faculty liaison, said the Black Stone investment will not have much effect on Wednesday’s meeting, as the group is focusing on coal divestment and the company deals with oil and gas. He added he was not surprised to hear NU invests in Black Stone, as energy is a large part of the investment market.

Cilento said she felt an investment like Black Stone is not consistent with the intention of the agreements NU has signed on to.

“Oil and gas companies do not fit in my mind with socially responsible investment as outlined by the UN Principles for Responsible Investing,” Cilento said. “I would hope that (the trustees) take those guidelines seriously and and consider the social, economic and environmental implications (of University investments).”

Jeremy Margolis contributed reporting.

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