College bars investment tied to Sudan government

Juliana Kiyan News Editor

In an Oct. 14 resolution, the Vassar Board of Trustees approved the prohibition of direct investment by the College in 22 companies that are either owned by the Sudanese government or whose business activities perpetuate the genocide against the people of its Darfur region. The College placed another 14 companies suspected of having monetary ties to the government on a watch list and will continue to monitor them for possible action in the future.

The Vassar Trustees cited the College’s commitment to the “promotion and protection of human rights both locally and globally” in their resolution, and approved the divestment recommendations made by the Campus Investor Responsibility Committee (CIRC) last month.

According to the Administrative Chair of CIRC and Associate Vice President and Director of Investment and Capital Steve Dahnert, the issue of divestment first came up last spring when members of CIRC became aware of other institutions taking steps toward divestment of companies linked to the Sudanese government. CIRC approached the Trustee Investor Responsibility Committee (TIRC) in May with suggestions to explore similar options, and TIRC directed CIRC to conduct an initial review.

Upon returning to campus this fall, CIRC began researching 39 companies that had been identified as directly supporting the Sudanese government by peer institutions and research groups, such as the Lowenstein Center on Human Rights at the Yale Law School. Dahnert said in an e-mailed statement that these companies are “thought to have operations in Sudan that provide either infrastructure or financial resources to the Sudanese government, thereby supporting genocidal activities in Sudan (and Darfur in particular).”

CIRC member Khadijah Barnett ’07 researched the associations of companies that appeared on other colleges’ divestment lists. “[CIRC] used information gathered from non-governmental organizations, other colleges with similar divestment goals, company interviews, company Web sites, and other sources to determine if they were supporting the Sudanese government,” said Barnett.

Barnett described some of the companies’ ties to the Sudanese government as oil-related. She said, “Some companies were party to three-way deals supplying Russian weapons to the Sudanese government in exchange for oil. Many oil, petroleum and engineering companies have vested interests in befriending the Sudanese government to gain rights to their oil blocks, and therefore provide aid to the government.”

Barnett added that the College did not divest of companies doing business in Sudan that provide assistance to citizens, like those building cellular phone networks or conducting medical research. Such companies may have supported the government, but CIRC did not want to take action without information about the ties.

After CIRC compiled its research, members first presented their findings to TIRC. TIRC approved the companies recommended for divestment in October, and the Board of Trustees approved the divestment resolution. “From the best of my knowledge, the Board was very aligned with our goals and shared our concerns,” said Barnett.

Dahnert and the Board of Trustees sent letters to Vassar’s investment managers in which they notified the managers of the College’s policy to prohibit investment in any of the same companies. Barnett said the investment managers were directed to immediately divest securities in those companies that were held in the name of Vassar College and to avoid future investments in the companies.

In the resolution, the Board of Trustees stated its reasons for prohibiting direct investment in companies that are owned by the government of Sudan or hold direct business interests in Sudan. “There is convincing evidence that the government of Sudan is both committing and supporting genocide against the people of its Darfur region, a fact that has been recognized by the United States President, Congress, and State Department, as well as by the United Nations,” the resolution read. “These practices are reprehensible and wholly inconsistent with the moral and ethical values of Vassar College.”

“It is important to note that Vassar had no direct exposure to any of these 22 companies, so this action was really a preventative measure,” said Dahnert. “TIRC and CIRC thought the moral issue in Sudan was both very clear and very important, and we therefore acted to avoid investments in companies believed to be supporting the genocide in some way.”