765 American Universities have combined endowments of $340 billion. The top ten total $100 billion. Eleven members of SDS at the University of FL are on hunger strike to pressure administrators to invest its $1.2 billion endowment in Socially Responsible Investments.
These crazies obviously failed econ 101. From HuffPost
At the core of the students' demand is the notion that investors are ultimately responsible for the practices of the companies in which they are invested. If profits are being made by violating human rights or international environmental norms, then investors are morally obligated to do something about it . . .
Maybe not so crazy.
SRIs screen investments for social and environmental bad behavior. Typically they reject weapons makers, tobacco goons, union-busters and polluters. At $340 billion, university endowment funds could profoundly influence corporate behavior.
Make a call to support SDS.
To get a sense of the lunacy, consider the Pew Charitable Trusts Paradox (from The Nation)
Mark Dowie, author of American Foundations: An Investigative History, said the Pew Charitable Trusts, "the largest environmental grant maker of all the foundations, was earning more money in dividends from the nation's largest polluters than they were giving to the environmental movement."
Students at the University of Florida agree that the college should not be profiting from activities that are at cross-purposes to ethical behavior:
Over 80% of student voters in a recent University of Florida student government referendum supported the adoption of a socially responsible investing policy.
Nor are students asking the university to invest in feel-good junk. A cautious first step, they are asking for investment transparency.
Their initial demand is simple, and, it would seem, non-controversial: they have asked the University to implement a policy of investment transparency so that students, faculty, alumni, and other members of the University community can educate themselves about the university's investment holdings.
The University has responded with blatant falsehoods about transparency in investments.
Success in Florida will surely spread to other campuses. A billion dollars here, a billion there, and soon your talking about real money. The first campaign is always the hardest. Help these students launch a new student movement that ends the lunacy of Robber Baron Investments. (and please rec this diary). Here's how:
SDS students want us to call the University President, Bernie Machen. Ask him if he thinks it's okay for universities to profit from war, environmental destruction, and human rights abuses:
Phone: (352) 392-1311
Fax: (352) 392-9506
Email: President@ufl.edu
Office of the President, 226 Tigert Hall, PO Box 113150,
Gainesville, FL 32611
Other administrators you can talk to:
Student Body President: president@sg.ufl.edu
Office of Sustainability Director Dedee DeLongpre: dedee@ufl.edu, (352) 392-1336
Ask them to publicly declare their support for the hunger strikers and their SRI proposal.
Sign the SDS petition