The University of California's Board of Regents voted today (March 16) to divest from several companies involved in significant business activities that provide revenue to the Sudanese government to continue acts of genocide in Darfur, marking the first major public university in the nation to take such action.
"The University of California has taken a principled stand against the tragedy in Sudan by severing its financial connections from those nine companies who aid the genocide and by lending its voice to those calling for peace in the region," said Gerald L. Parsky, chairman of the board.
The Regents voted to divest all UC shares, including those combined in index funds, of the following nine companies held within separately managed equity portfolios of the university's pension and endowment funds: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), Nam Fatt Co. Bhd., Oil & Natural Gas Co. Ltd., PECD Bhd., PetroChina Company Ltd., Sudan Telecom Co. Ltd. (Sudatel), Tatneft OAO, and Videocon Industries Ltd.
The exact dollar amount involved will not be known until the divestment occurs.
The University also will exercise a "voice" option by sending letters of concern about the role of business revenue in contributing to the violence in Darfur to four additional companies -- Finmeccanica SPA, Harbin Power Equipment Co. Ltd., Lundin Petroleum AB, and Schlumberger Ltd. The Regents believe that these companies can be persuaded to sever their ties with the Sudanese government.
"Today's vote puts the University on the right side of history, in the position to exercise powerful and practical action to help end the murder, torture and genocide in Darfur," said Regent Adam Rosenthal, who is a student and first presented the divestment issue at the Regents' November 2005 meeting.
The Regents' decision signifies a major win for UC students, who rallied faculty, staff and many others to support divestment by raising awareness to the plight of the more than 400,000 people who have died in "government-backed massacres and the nearly 2 million more people displaced and a government-condoned policy of rape."
Regent Rosenthal and Jason Miller, a UCSF student in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD), contributed to an opinion piece published in the LA Times just two days before the issue came before the Regents. Through the efforts of the student-led University of California Sudan Divestment Taskforce ucdivestsudan.com, the students gained support of federal and state political leaders, an interfaith religious community, foreign policy experts and other community notables. Read their op-ed piece
here (LA Times registry required).
The divestment action prohibits future investment in these companies until such time as there is compelling information that a company has materially improved its operation and is no longer contributing to the suffering in Darfur, or that the situation there has improved to such a point that the ban is no longer thought to be in the best interests of the people of Sudan.
To help protect the Regents' fiduciary obligations to the health of the UC investments, as a result of making this decision on non-financial criteria, the implementation of the divestment plan is conditioned upon enactment by the California Legislature and the governor's approval of legislation to indemnify individual Regents and the University as a whole for all costs and defense of any claim arising from the decision to divest. The University will work with students and community members who support this divestment to seek indemnification. A spot bill to address this element is being introduced by Assemblymember Tim Leslie (R-Roseville).
Divestment would be completed within an 18-month period, commencing once indemnification legislation has been enacted.
Today's vote follows two months of deliberations by the Regents' study group charged with identifying criteria for divestment, a list of offending companies and a plan for divesting from them. The study group recommendations and the Regents' agenda item on Sudan divestment is posted online
here (pdf).
Members of the University's Sudan divestment study group included representatives from the Regents, the UC treasurer's office, the UC general counsel, students from the UC Sudan Divestment Task Force, faculty, the UC Retirement Plan Advisory Board, the Regents' investment advisory committee, and external fund management.
Source: UC Office of the President
Links:
University of California
UC Divestment Sudan
