Ellucian ESG Policy

Last update 3 February 2022

Offering a safe, ethical, and inclusive workplace, supporting success for all students, making a positive impact in our communities, and reducing our environmental impact have long been part of Ellucian’s culture.  We have made Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues core to our business because it’s the right thing to do and it helps our company, customers and communities thrive. The purpose of this Policy is to formalize our commitment to ESG and to share our approach to the issues that offer the best opportunities for us to make a positive difference.

We continue to grow our focus on ESG as part of our mission to serve higher education institutions and fulfill our responsibility as a global market leader. Integrating ESG throughout our company can lead to growth and product innovation as well as help us attract and retain top talent. We know that when we prioritize ESG, we align with our customers, employees and partners who share our deep commitment to enable the success of students and communities.

Ellucian recognizes its responsibility to ensure the communities where we do business are places where all can thrive. We commit to reducing the impact of our operations on the environment and maintaining strong governance in our business operations. Our ESG policy serves as a guide for us as a company to ensure that our decisions, operational objectives, and investments are aligned with these commitments.

Scope

This Policy applies to all business activity conducted by or on behalf of Ellucian regardless of location.

Contents

Environmental
Social
Governance
Forward Looking
Responsible Parties and Contact Information
Addendum
Awards and Certifications

Ellucian ESG Priority Areas

Environmental

Carbon Emissions and Waste Management
Our Commitment

Ellucian is committed to improve our impact on the environment and increase the efficiency of our services and operations. We acknowledge the impact our facilities, travel, data centers and suppliers have on the environment and are taking actionable steps to reduce any negative effects.

Toward this end, we have and will continue to establish initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions and waste throughout our operations. For example, we ban single-use plastics in 65% of office kitchens and implement emissions-saving practices like using LED lights in our facilities. Recently, we performed an energy audit in our Malvern, Pennsylvania (USA) facility. We implemented the recommended changes and decreased energy consumption by 9%. Additionally, in January 2020, Ellucian was recognized by Fairfax County, Virginia (USA), as an employer that excels in implementing green commuter programs, including ridesharing, transit benefits, and alternate work schedules.

We will periodically review and update these initiatives and hold ourselves accountable by measuring and reporting on our footprint.

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Social

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Our Commitment

Ellucian is committed to offering an ethical and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, disability, race, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique.

Ellucian sponsors multiple employee-led Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) focused on creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and supporting personal and professional development. Today, those ERGs include:

Ellucian’s DEI initiatives are applicable—but not limited—to our practices and policies on recruitment and selection; compensation and benefits; professional development and training; promotions; transfers; social and recreational programs; layoffs; terminations; and the ongoing development of a work environment built on the premise of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We provide educational sessions and training that explore biases, their impact in the workplace and how we can influence behaviors to drive greater inclusivity. Our initiatives encourage and reinforce:

• Respectful communication and cooperation between all employees.
• Teamwork and employee participation, permitting the representation of all groups and employee perspectives.
• Work/life balance through flexible work schedules to accommodate employees’ varying needs.
• Employer and employee contributions to the communities we serve to promote a greater understanding and respect for the diversity.

All employees of Ellucian have a responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect at all times. All employees are expected to exhibit conduct that reflects inclusion during work, at work functions on or off the work site, and at all other company-sponsored and participative events.

Philanthropy and Community engagement
Our Commitment

Ellucian invests in programs to support student success. We believe that all students should have access to quality education. We also empower our employees to volunteer for and donate to the causes they care about.

Our commitment to student success is demonstrated through philanthropic programs offered by Ellucian and the Ellucian Foundation to provide funding for students to stay and thrive in school. For example, the Ellucian Foundation’s PATH Scholarship Program offers funding to higher education institutions in Australia, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Lebanon, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom to support students in financial distress. PATH funds help students cover items such as housing, tuition, and food, to allow them to continue pursuing their degree.

All Ellucian employees are encouraged to volunteer for a cause they care about with our charity leave policy, which offers 40 hours annually of paid time off. Recently, an employee team in Lake Mary, Florida (USA) used charity leave to pack 5,000 meals for US Hunger. Similarly, an employee in Mexico City (MX) used her leave to make face shields for medical professionals on the front lines of COVID-19. In our E2AP region and India, a team of employees held a Walk the World event to raise funds for Save the Children. This is all in addition to company-funded volunteer service in disaster areas where Ellucian employees assisted in clean up and rebuilding activities after hurricanes and earthquakes destroyed homes in Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Opportunities are also offered throughout the year for employees to make contributions to charity, often through our company-funded employee recognition program.

Employee health and well-being
Our Commitment

Ellucian is committed to offering a safe and healthy workplace that the supports the well-being of our diverse workforce. Our commitment is demonstrated through workplace policies designed with employee health and safety at the center and a comprehensive benefits portfolio for employees, their children and spouses or domestic partners.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, our commitment to employee health and safety is vital as we navigate important decisions about our workplace, such as office access and safety protocols. Measures to protect employees from COVID-19 infection in the workplace include but are not limited to closing offices worldwide in March 2020 and encouraging all employees to work from home. As the pandemic continues, we are opening offices with a small number of employee volunteers. COVID-19 vaccinations are required of all employees and contractors working in our offices.

Our commitment to employee well-being also guides the benefits portfolio we offer to employees and their families. Ellucian offers a rich set of benefits supporting diverse employee needs including but not limited to parental leave at the birth or adoption of a child, access to on-demand mental health services, reimbursement for activities like gym memberships, and remote working support. These benefits are in addition to comprehensive medical, dental and vision benefits for employees, dependents, spouses, and domestic partners.

Responsible supply chain management
Our Commitment

We acknowledge the potential impact of our supply chain on environmental, social and governance issues. We are committed to understand and take steps to mitigate any negative impact. To that end, we have policies that ensure there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains. Our Supplier Code of Conduct ensures suppliers adhere to the highest standards by requiring them to provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and act ethically. 

Ellucian ensures suppliers and business partners are subject to vetting, including the verification of information provided to us. Further, Ellucian uses only specified, reputable employment agencies to source labor and always verifies the practices of any new agency it is using before accepting workers from that agency. In India, an external vendor verifies every six months that employment agencies are in compliance with all local laws.

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Governance

Data security and privacy
Our Commitment

Data security is of utmost importance to us. At Ellucian, we rely on our data security and privacy policies and practices to drive behavior, enforce rules, and provide guardrails to ensure protection of our data assets. We have robust formal Data Security and Privacy processes and programs through which we identify potential risks in those areas; develop, implement, and monitor compliance with policies related to those areas; and provide regular mandatory training and awareness on these topics.

Ellucian Cloud Services is ISO27001:2013 certified, which demonstrates our commitment to security across products and cloud services and the effectiveness of our security controls. In addition, an independent audit firm conducts our annual Service Organization Control (SOC) audits. The SOC1 and SOC2 Type II reports are available to customers for review upon request and execution of a non-disclosure agreement. The SOC 3 report is publicly available. We also engage with an independent 3rd party annually to conduct external penetration tests and participate in a private bug bounty program where our products are tested by ethical hackers.

Ellucian also has a dedicated team who gathers and monitors security threat intelligence. The team’s work includes investigating and analyzing indicators of potential compromise and managing a cross-organizational security incident response program.

Ethics and compliance
Our Commitment

Ellucian has an established Employee Code of Conduct, which serves as our guiding framework and tool to ensure that we maintain our role as a trusted partner, to conduct business responsibly and to remind us that every action counts. We believe that we best serve our customers, our investors and ourselves by adhering to the highest standards of ethical behavior and by maintaining an environment that is fair, open, and honest.

Our Code of Conduct applies to all Ellucian employees, officers, and members of the board. Business partners, including distributors, resellers, channel partners, and other third parties, can have a direct impact on our reputation through their behavior. For this reason, we want to work with business partners who share our commitment to safety, ethics, and compliance. We expect and encourage all third-party contractors we work with and their employees to act in a way that is consistent with our Code. We will take appropriate measures where we believe they have not met our expectations or their contractual obligations.

We provide annual training on compliance and ethics issues and an annual employee certification. The certification ensures that employees have read and understand the Code of Conduct and have acted in accordance with the Code and underlying policies. We also provide various channels, including an externally monitored hotline, through which employees can raise concerns or ask questions.

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Forward Looking

Our approach to ESG will evolve as we take even greater action on our priority areas and explore new opportunities to make a positive difference. On the horizon, we see tremendous opportunity to evaluate the positive impact Ellucian’s software solutions have on student outcomes. Ultimately, we aspire to find new ways our solutions can better serve students as we partner with higher education institutions dedicated to student success.

We will work to expand the data we can access, and share related to our progress on all ESG issues, with a particular focus on emissions reduction and managing our impact on the environment. Data availability and transparency will also be critical as we double-down on our commitment to offer an inclusive workplace and ensure diversity across our supply chain. Our work in community engagement and philanthropy will also evolve as we seek new ways to ensure student success through targeted support, strategic relationships, and employee engagement.

As always, employee health and well-being will remain a top priority. We anticipate shaping new policies to accommodate diverse work locations and preferences, as well as further benefit enhancements where needed.

We will also maintain our rigorous approach to data security and privacy with continuous risk assessment and monitoring and cloud security enhancements. We will continue to evolve the resources available to employees and the entire Ellucian ecosystem to maintain the highest standards of ethics and compliance, ensuring we all have the tools to do the right thing.

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Responsible Parties and Contact Information

Ellucian’s ESG Executive Team includes the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Legal Officer and Chief People Officer.

With the support of the ESG Executive Team, the company formed a cross-functional ESG working team with members across the Legal, People, Finance, Information Technology, Product and Data Security teams to identify ESG areas of focus and articulate our commitment in each area. This team will continue to be accountable to the executive team for policy updates, program initiatives and further reporting.

Ellucian’s ESG working team partners with our long-standing Compliance Program, which is designed to educate employees, ensure compliance with our Employee Code of Conduct, foster an ethical corporate environment, establish a mechanism to detect and identify violations of the Code or other unethical behavior, and audit the Company's and employees' compliance with and adherence to the Code. The program is guided by our Compliance Committee, which is led by our Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, and composed of leaders across our Legal, People, Information Security and Finance teams.

If you have any questions or comments related to Ellucian’s ESG Policy, please reach out to Kirsten Weeks, Senior Director of ESG, at [email protected].

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Addendum

Alignment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs. While we believe that all 17 SDG goals are important, we consider 4 to be material for Ellucian’s business. The 4 goals selected after considerable feedback from our internal and external stakeholders are:

Goal 4 – Quality education: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. (Please read our commitment to Philanthropy and Community Engagement above to learn how Ellucian is contributing to this space.)

Goal 5 – Gender Equality: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. (Please read our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion above to understand how Ellucian is contributing to this space.)

Goal 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth: Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all. (Please read our commitments in our Social and Governance priority areas to understand how Ellucian is contributing to this space.)

Goal 13 – Climate Action: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (Please read our commitment to Carbon Emissions and Waste Management above to understand how Ellucian is contributing to this space.)

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Awards and Certifications

In addition to many industry awards for our solutions and customer experience, Ellucian has been recognized for workplace excellence by Great Place to Work, the Washington Business Journal and the Washingtonian Magazine. President and CEO Laura Ipsen has also been featured as a stand out leader in the State of Virginia, home to Ellucian’s corporate headquarters.

Across many of our offices, we have been awarded with, or are in the process of obtaining, certificates exemplifying our commitment to maintaining a sustainable and healthy office environment. Those include:

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