By Sam Dolgin-Gardner, NSNS staff writer

A University of Chicago group called Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) is engaging in aggressive public protests—and guerrilla protests—to convince the administration to divest from companies that support the Sudanese Khartoum regime.  Members have organized protests on campus, engaged newly-appointed President Robert Zimmer directly in town hall meetings, and snuck into a meeting of the Board of Trustees in an attempt to bring their case directly to the Board.

The University of Chicago has had a longstanding policy, elucidated in the 1967 Kalven report, which states that the University will “maintain an independence from fashions, passions and pressures.”  The Board of Trustees used this as a rationale in their decision not to divest.  Instead, they have created a $200,000 “Darfur Action and Education” fund to address issues related to the conflict in Darfur and are welcoming proposals.  STAND has called this “blood money” and put up posters on campus with a picture of a bullet and the message that the University has paid for it.

The University does not divulge the specific nature of the investments of its more than 5 billion dollar endowment, which has risen almost 2 billion dollars since 2003. Consequently it is impossible to know if, in fact, University funds are being invested in companies with unscrupulous practices.  STAND, for its part, has not released the names of companies it considers unacceptable.

The Sudan Divestment Taskforce, the worldwide divestment advocacy group, does not publicly release the names of companies “under scrutiny.”  Instead, it works directly with entities that wish to divest their funds.  Last year, under their guidance, the University of California system divested from numerous companies, including Bharat Heavy Electricals, Sinopec, and Petrochina.  Many of these companies see excellent return on investment.  Bharat Heavy Electricals, an Indian manufacturer of power generating and transmitting equipment, gave a 142% dividend last fiscal year.

The University of Chicago, in its investment strategy overview, states that it invests 12.5% of its endowment in international equities in emerging markets.  If only 1% of that $625 million had been invested in Bharat Heavy Electricals, it would have been enough to pay for the entirety of the newly created “Darfur Action and Education Fund” many times over.