PANGEA and The Tufts Coalition for Endowment Transparency and Democracy (TCETD) hosted a panel discussion yesterday on divestment from the Sudanese government entitled "Are Universities Funding War and Genocide?"
Currently, both PANGEA and TCETD are involved in efforts to move Tufts University to withdraw its investments from companies with interests in the Sudanese government.
Khartoum has fallen under fire worldwide for their alleged backing of the janjaweed pro-government militia force to repress ongoing ethnic conflict.
CNN reports that these militiamen are accused of atrocities in a conflict that has killed some 200,000 people and forced 2.5 million from their homes.
Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler told the Daily earlier this year that Tufts has no direct investments in the Sudan.
Tufts has never publicly disclosed the breakdown for the $1.2 billion endowment, accordingly, it remains unclear whether any of the funds invested have any interests in Sudan.
PANGEA's Nicole Zeller thinks there should be a change.
"Divestment is absolutely necessary," Zeller said. "Our actions should speak louder than our words. If Tufts wants to pride itself on being globally aware and globally active, it should most definitely divest."
The panel consisted of four experts in responsible investment and Sudan, including Dan Millenson, executive director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, and Ben Collins, founder of the Harvard Chapter of the Darfur Action Group. Also participating were Angela Kelly, outreach coordinator for Mass Peace Action, and Karin Chamberlain, manager of indexes at KLD Research and Analytics, an independent investment research firm.
Speaking to an audience of Tufts students in Eaton 201, the experts tackled topics ranging from divestment education to strategies for divestment activism.
Kelly, a graduate of Providence College, is the coordinating committee representative for the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition and the Steering Committee Representative for the group United for Peace and Justice. Kelly said that money coming from the investments of many universities ends up driving such activities as nuclear weapons research and small arms trading, things students may not be aware their universities are funding.
"We own what is happening with [the money we are paying universities], be it sweatshops or genocide or nuclear weapons," Kelly said.
Kelly also added that divestment is an especially crucial tool for activists in the context of today's youth and society. "We're the consumer generation. We care where our money is going," she said.
Robinson, a MALD recipient from the Fletcher School (F '99), previously served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador. She stressed the importance of promoting "socially responsible investment" on campuses.
"All you have to ask is that your money is managed in line with the mission of the university," Robinson said.
Millenson, an undergraduate at Brandeis University, works with many student activist groups in promoting divestment from Sudan, in addition to working with a divestment campaign for the state of Massachusetts.
He notes that divestment from Sudan has become "trendy" in recent years, with major universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth and Yale all having divested partially or completely from Sudanese interests. Millenson added that the power of divestment to make positive changes should not be underestimated.
"[Divestment] will not single-handedly end the genocide in Sudan, but every time there were breakthroughs there was really significant economic pressure," Millenson said.
Collins talked about how he first got involved in activism to divest from Sudan when he was a junior at Harvard in 2004. After reading an article in the Harvard Crimson about how Harvard owned $4 million in stock in Petrochina, a company that had significant business dealings with the Sudanese government, he and some friends approached then-President of Harvard Lawrence Summers about divesting from the company.
When he learned from a later Crimson article that Harvard increased their share of stock in Petrochina, he helped organize a boycott of the Harvard senior gift, a voluntary donation of $10 by Harvard seniors to the University as a symbol of gratitude for the time they spent in college.
Faced with the potential embarrassment of such a boycott, Harvard agreed to divest completely from Petrochina.
"Even if you don't feel you're being taken seriously by the administration, you are," Collins said.
Both Collins and Millenson encouraged activists not to be discouraged by difficulties they may encounter when fighting for divestment. Both stressed the importance of finding the reasonable middle ground between financial prudence and social responsibility when speaking with university administrators.
Tufts sophomore Sara Robbins added, "we came to this school to expand our knowledge about activism and making positive change in the world. [Tufts] should give us what we're paying for."
TCETD was together this semester to help further the cause of divestment at Tufts; as such, they have not yet been recognized by the TCU judiciary.
