US Chicago refuses to divest from company linked to Sudan

BY Dave Newbart

Feb 4, 2007 (CHICAGO) — Despite months of student protests, the University of Chicago has refused to divest in companies that support the ruling regime in the Darfur region of Sudan.

In an announcement made late Friday afternoon, U. of C. President Robert Zimmer said the school will “not change its investment policy or its long-standing practice of not taking explicit positions on social and political issues that do not have a direct bearing on the university.”

The U. of C. would not say exactly how much of its $5 billion endowment is invested in companies that do business in Darfur, but officials said it was usually a small amount.

Zimmer announced the creation of a $200,000 fund to support student and faculty work on the crisis in Sudan.

In the Darfur region, the Arab-led government is accused of unleashing militias that have slaughtered hundreds of thousands and forced several million from their homes.

Michael Pareles, a student who co-chaired the campaign for university divestment, said his group was “extremely disappointed at the board of trustees’ decision to remain complicit in genocide.”

He continued: “While all of its peer institutions, including Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, have divested from the Sudanese government and from apartheid in South Africa, the university has proven time and time again that it does not feel beholden to the moral standards that all other responsible academic institutions accept.”

(Chicago Sun-Times)