NEW YORK – The College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF), an investment company within the TIAA-CREF financial services organization, held its annual meeting today at the company’s New York headquarters.

“Today, we stand on the verge of being able to fulfill our mission in a new way – a way that more effectively meets our participants’ modern-day needs,” said TIAA-CREF Chief Executive Herb Allison.

“We will set a new standard by being a financial services organization completely in step with our clients’ best interests, offering high-value products and services, objective advice, non-commissioned consultants and an open choice of world-class products tailored to our clients’ ultimate financial goals,” Allison added.

In other meeting-related actions, CREF participants:

• Elected two new trustees to the CREF Board

  • Eugene Flood, Jr., Ph.D. President and CEO of Smith Breeden Associates, Inc.
    
  • Howell E. Jackson, James S. Reid, Jr., Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Administration and Budget at Harvard Law School

• Re-elected six current trustees: Willard T. Carleton; Nancy L. Jacob; Bevis Longstreth; Bridget A. Macaskill; Maceo K. Sloan; and Ahmed H. Zewail.
  
• Ratified the board of Trustees’ selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers as CREF’s independent auditors for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2005 (approximately 96% for, 1.5% against and 2.5% abstaining)
  
• Rejected a participant proposal requesting CREF obtain an advisory report in the event of a future restructuring (approximately 22% for, 71% against and 7% abstaining)
  
  (All voting results are preliminary, but are expected to be within 1% of final tallies.)

  Mr. Allison stated that TIAA-CREF would continue discussions on how best to expand its socially responsible commitment – either through the products it offers or through the active ownership strategies it undertakes.

About TIAA-CREF

TIAA-CREF is a national financial services organization and the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields. With more than $350 billion in combined assets under management (6/30/05), TIAA-CREF is one of Fortune magazine’s 100 largest U.S. companies (April 2005). Further information can be found at http://www.tiaa-cref.org.

TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, and Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc., distribute securities products. You should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. Please call 1-800-842-2776 from 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. ET, weekdays, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. ET on Saturday or access our website at http://www.tiaa-cref.org for a prospectus that contains this and other information. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.