University to divest from four companies connected to Sudan

University to divest from four companies connected to Sudan: "'Divestment is an act that should be made rarely and carefully,' said Stanford President John Hennessy. 'In this case, it was clear that the genocide occurring in Darfur, which appears to be at least partly enabled by these four companies, is in direct opposition to Stanford University's principles.'"

I'm impressed. It takes an incredible amount of work to get Stanford to actually go through the full process of divestment. As committed as Stanford may or may not be to various social issues, the bottom line was always first when I was there. I worked on investment responsibility with other students regarding Burma issues, where companies in which the university invested were directly supporting the military junta. We couldn't move divestment and were basically told to back off. I don't even think we could get the university to vote its proxy votes.

People regularly ridicule student activists for being uninformed and extremist, but I have found many incredibly intelligent individuals out there doing good work. Here is the website for Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, the group working on the divestment campaign at Stanford. Kudos to them! I guess a 49 page detailed report helps to move things along.