UC Board Approves Sudan Divestment

The University of California’s Board of Regents voted unanimously Thursday to pull out of investments in nine companies with ties to the Sudanese government, responding to a student activist campaign that had urged divestment for more than a year.

“This is a great day for the university,” said Adam Rosenthal, a student regent, during the board’s afternoon session at UCLA. The vote sends a message to the U.S. and Sudanese governments that the UC system will “never stand by” while refugees suffer, he said.

As one regent after another voted for the plan, students from the UC Sudan Divestment Task Force stood together, holding hands across the aisle as they waited for the outcome.

When the board secretary announced the motion had passed, the students broke into cheers. Some cried. Regent Sherry Lansing stood to clap and hugged Rosenthal in congratulations.

The nine companies, many involved in energy and oil, have provided financial or military support to the Sudanese government and showed “little or no interest in the situation in Darfur,” according to the Sudan Divestment Study Group, a panel created by the regents to examine the issue.

The violence in Darfur, a western region of the country, erupted in 2003 between government-supported, mostly Arab militia and non-Arab rebels who say the political leadership oppresses black Africans. Although no official count exists, some tolls suggest tens of thousands have died.

With Thursday’s vote, the UC system joined a handful of private institutions -- including Stanford, Yale and Harvard universities -- that have divested from companies linked to the Sudanese government. The Illinois and New Jersey state governments have made similar moves.

Opponents of the resolution had said that removing foreign investment would impede development and democratization in Sudan. Others had argued that lost investments could harm UC financially and allow noneconomic issues to dominate the UC’s investment decisions.

The study group’s recommendation will prohibit buying shares in the nine companies in the future. Purchases will be allowed only after they no longer contribute “to the suffering in the Darfur region.”

Rosenthal brought the issue to the board’s attention in November by proposing a resolution to divest from four foreign businesses with strong connections to the Sudanese government. In January, the regents voted to notify those companies of UC concerns about their activities in Sudan and alert them to the possibility of divestment.

Students’ awareness of the successful 1980s divestment campaign against the South African apartheid policy inspired them to try the same tactic to address the Sudan situation, said Baylee DeCastro, an international development studies major.

On Thursday, those students were out by the dozens at 8 a.m. in UCLA’s Covel Commons, clad in green shirts that read “Stop Genocide in Sudan” and “Save Darfur.” Some had traveled through the night on a chartered bus that carried representatives from UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. As they danced and clapped, they chanted, “Get up, stand up, divest from genocide,” to the beat of African drums. Their cries could be heard in the building next door, where the regents convened their morning session.

Later, nearly 100 student activists demonstrated in a quieter fashion, lying on the concrete in the commons with signs that read “I Am a Victim of Genocide in Darfur.” Several other academic institutions are evaluating their positions on human rights and investment, said Mark Tulay, the environmental, social and governance market director for Institutional Shareholder Services, a New York-based investment research firm.

Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), who attended the regents’ meeting, said he plans to use the UC student divestment model at the state level. Last month, Koretz and Assemblyman Joe Coto (D-San Jose) introduced a bill advocating divestment for public-pension funds.

“This has been done brilliantly,” Koretz said of the campaign and UC collaboration. “I really commend the students today because they’ve really led the charge to change this across the country.”