Brown University agrees to divest from Sudan

M.L. Johnson

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Brown University’s governing board announced Saturday that it will no longer invest in companies that do business in Sudan because the country has been accused of genocide.

Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Amherst and Yale have already decided to divest from Sudan.

The United States and other nations say genocide has occurred in Sudan’s Darfur region, where an estimated 180,000 people have died since early 2003 when decades of tribal clashes over land and water erupted into large-scale violence. Two million others have been displaced.

“This is a critically important and strong statement by the university community regarding our abhorrence of the genocidal actions being supported and undertaken by the Sudanese government,” Brown President Ruth Simmons said in a statement. “We declare our solidarity with the peoples of the Darfur region of Sudan whose struggle to live in peace, freedom and security is an issue of pressing global concern.”

Members of the Brown Corporation, which oversees the university’s assets, made the decision to divest Saturday morning.

University spokeswoman Molly de Ramel said it’s not clear yet how much money will be divested, but it will be “substantial.” Brown has an endowment of more than $1.6 billion.

Brown’s Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investing, which includes students, faculty and alumni, recently asked Simmons to consider divestment.

Freshman Scott Warren, a spokesman for Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, or STAND, said his group is “thrilled” with the university’s decision. Fifty students were in the midst of a rally calling for divestment Saturday morning when Chancellor Stephen Robert emerged from the corporation’s meeting to announce the decision.

The students have asked the university not to invest in companies that supply the Sudanese government with capital or fail to engage in humanitarian activities in the country, Warren said. They expect the university to withdraw its investment in oil and telecommunications companies, but others could meet that criteria as well, he said.

Simmons said the university will develop a list of companies whose business activities have supported the Sudanese government as it engaged in genocide and withdraw its investments from them.

(Associated Press)