Commit to divestment
While the international community continues to increase its pressure on the Sudanese government to end the genocide in Darfur, institutions across the United States, both public and private, are looking closely at what they can do to help end the conflict.
One of the easiest and most effective strategies to address the issue of the genocide in Sudan is divestment - restricting or withholding investments from companies that do business with the Sudanese government.
Divestment can affect Sudanese policies by targeting private companies that work with the Sudanese government. When our nation's institutions do business with companies that work with the Sudanese government, that money indirectly goes toward the Janjaweed militia, which is committing genocide in southern Sudan.
Businesses are profit-driven institutions. By isolating these businesses and thus rendering it unprofitable to do business with Sudan, divestment works to isolate the current regime.
In recent years, a number of high-profile private universities - universities we often call our "peers" - have taken the lead on this by thoroughly reviewing their investment profiles and publicly divesting from Sudan. Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Brown and Dartmouth, along with 50 other universities, have all divested.
Unfortunately, Hopkins has not publicly divested and refuses even to consider it.
By conservative estimates, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed in Darfur. And yet the administration does not consider it a moral imperative to publicly and fully divest from Sudan as a matter of University policy.
We find this disturbing on a number of levels, not least of which is ethical. Does the University not consider it an overriding ethical responsibility to review its investments - thoroughly and transparently - to ensure that they do not in some way contribute to the Sudanese government? We do, and we're willing to bet most students do too.
One of the easiest and most effective strategies to address the issue of the genocide in Sudan is divestment - restricting or withholding investments from companies that do business with the Sudanese government.
Divestment can affect Sudanese policies by targeting private companies that work with the Sudanese government. When our nation's institutions do business with companies that work with the Sudanese government, that money indirectly goes toward the Janjaweed militia, which is committing genocide in southern Sudan.
Businesses are profit-driven institutions. By isolating these businesses and thus rendering it unprofitable to do business with Sudan, divestment works to isolate the current regime.
In recent years, a number of high-profile private universities - universities we often call our "peers" - have taken the lead on this by thoroughly reviewing their investment profiles and publicly divesting from Sudan. Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Brown and Dartmouth, along with 50 other universities, have all divested.
Unfortunately, Hopkins has not publicly divested and refuses even to consider it.
By conservative estimates, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed in Darfur. And yet the administration does not consider it a moral imperative to publicly and fully divest from Sudan as a matter of University policy.
We find this disturbing on a number of levels, not least of which is ethical. Does the University not consider it an overriding ethical responsibility to review its investments - thoroughly and transparently - to ensure that they do not in some way contribute to the Sudanese government? We do, and we're willing to bet most students do too.
Be the first to comment on this story