Oberlin College Board of Trustees Supports Divestment in Sudan

February 12, 2007 -- The Oberlin College Board of Trustees has amended its investment policy to encourage the College’s investment managers to divest from targeted companies that conduct business with the government of Sudan. The goal is that divestment will put economic pressure on the Sudanese government, making it difficult to fund actions that have been recognized internationally as genocide.

“When there’s any international attention put on Sudan, violence goes down,” says Rebekah Bob-Waksberg ’09, a student representative of the campus activist organization STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur), a nationwide student anti-genocide coalition with more than 600 chapters.

The College had been considering the issue, but it was at the students’ urging that President Nancy S. Dye and the Board were propelled to action, according to Oberlin College Chief Investment Officer Marcia Miller. Companies providing military equipment, arms, or defense supplies to Sudan are first on the divestment list. Those that provide revenue to the Sudanese government, companies that have offered little substantive benefits to those outside the Sudanese government or its affiliated supporters in Khartoum, Northern Sudan, and the Nile River Valley, and companies that have demonstrated complicity in the Darfur genocide or have not taken any substantial action to halt the genocide will also be considered for divestment.

Oberlin College has no direct investments in any company doing business in Sudan, but like many other institutions, the College does own co-mingled funds. A relatively low percentage of these may include small investments in companies identified as maintaining business activities in Sudan.

Excluded from divestment are companies that benefit the social development of Sudan, such as those providing medical or agricultural supplies, educational opportunities, or journalism-related activities.

The Oberlin Board of Trustees adopted the resolution to encourage divestment in Sudan at its June, 2006 meeting. A number of schools across the nation have taken part in the divestment effort, including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Stanford and Dartmouth universities, Amherst and Connecticut Colleges, and the University of California system.

Related Links:
- STAND

Media Contact:
Scott Wargo
Director of Media Relations
Oberlin College
440-775-5197

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