One of the outcomes of fall board meetings at Bethel College, North Newton, Kan., was establishment of a socially responsible investment (SRI) fund for endowed gifts.

The board’s Financial Affairs Committee reviewed a proposal to create this option as an alternative to existing endowed funds.

Bethel currently holds its endowment with Common Fund. The new socially responsible fund will exist in conjunction with it.

This initiative rose from donor requests, and it begins with a six-figure gift from Bethel alumni Lois and Richard Reimer, who recently retired to North Newton after careers in Ohio: Richard as a professor of economics at the College of Wooster and Lois as a nurse.

Bethel’s new fund is invested with Mennonite Education Agency, along with other, similar funds held by Mennonite colleges.

Screenings for the SRI fund include abortion, adult entertainment, alcohol, firearms, gambling, nuclear power, predatory lending, tobacco and weapons production, along with human rights and environment records.