US Maryland University bans Sudan investments
Aug 11, 2006 (ADELPHI, MD) — The University System of Maryland Foundation decided on Thursday 10 August to ban investments in companies that have been identified as complicit in genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The University System of Maryland Foundation (USMF) has taken a stand against companies complicit in genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region. The USMF directed the managers of its actively managed separate accounts of publicly traded equity portfolios not to hold shares in companies appearing on a list of such companies maintained by the foundation’s investment staff.
“The University System of Maryland Foundation has taken decisive action to protest the Sudan government’s atrocities with respect to the people of Darfur,” said Walter Fatzinger Jr., chair of the foundation’s board. “The extraordinary nature of this deplorable situation compelled the board to act.”
The Maryland system does not have any current investments in Sudan, but has directed its money managers to avoid them in the future.
“I applaud the University System of Maryland Foundation for adopting this resolution,” said William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland. “The actions of the government of Sudan with respect to the people of Darfur are abhorrent and it is important that we communicate this as strongly as possible.”
The University System of Maryland Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation separate from the University System of Maryland (USM). It receives, manages, and administers donations given to support many of the university system’s 13 institutions. Currently, the foundation oversees the investments of more than $700 million, which includes its own assets and those of other affiliated foundations within USM.
At universities across the country, students and other activists have pushed divestment of holdings in companies doing business in Sudan, where a conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people.
(ST)