In a time of economic instability, every penny of a university’s billion-dollar endowment counts, especially when the fiscal year’s current projections continually dwindle.

At Yale, one outspoken group of pseudo-philanthropists, the Responsible Endowment Project, wants the University’s Investments Office to use their $22.9 billion endowment wisely, and by wisely, they mean not squandering it on eco-unfriendly projects and the mistreatment of their employees.

The Yale Daily News reports:

At a panel discussion that drew an audience of about 150, REP leaders argued that some of Yale’s investments support environmentally unsustainable practices and worker mistreatment. To humanize the issue, speakers at the event included California hotel worker Jose Landino — who says he and his coworkers have been exploited by the Yale-supported company HEI Hotels and Resorts — along with Dartmouth professor Sydney Lea ’64 GRD ’72 and environmental activist Steve Keith, who have expressed concerns about unsustainable logging in Maine and other environmental infractions.

[…] During his presentation, Landino said he and other hotel workers face serious mistreatment by HEI, decrying the wage cuts, excessive workloads and barriers to forming unions he and his coworkers face under HEI’s management.

Granted, the mistreatment of workers is a deplorable thing, but the brunt of guilt lies with HEI, not Yale.

Yale may fund their company, but they’re not directly responsible here. And so, the administration should—at the very least—investigate the claims made by the REP.

While they have issued a ‘no comment’, Yale is expected to respond at some point.