Editorial: UC must support divestment from Sudan

It’s easy to condemn past genocide while watching a movie
such as “Hotel Rwanda,” but now the University of
California has a chance to take a stand against the massacre in
present-day Sudan.

Today, the UC Sudan Divestment Taskforce will make public an
official proposal to divest UC funds from the conflict-plagued
country of Sudan. The university system currently invests an
estimated $66 million in funds that are connected to companies such
as PetroChina, Total South African Petroleum and Oil Company and
Siemens AG.

The monetary contributions these companies make to the Sudanese
government indirectly supports a campaign of systematic destruction
in Darfur, a region of Sudan where government-sponsored militias
have to date killed an estimated 400,000 people, and where conflict
has displaced another 2.5 million people. (The proposal drawn up by
the Divestment Taskforce excludes companies that benefit the
Sudanese people.)

Despite this ethically dubious investment strategy, the
spokesman for the UC Office of the President has said many times
that the university makes its investment decisions based on
strictly financial grounds, social issues notwithstanding.

While it’s understandable that the UC cannot divest from
all funds connected to socially controversial issues, there should
be an exemption list. And the genocide in Darfur, which the United
Nations has called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world
today, should be at the top.

Historically, one of higher education’s prouder moments
was its crucial involvement in divesting from apartheid-ridden
South Africa in the 1980s, a movement in which the UC played a lead
role.

And the UC even divested from tobacco companies in the mid-1990s
““ a social issue less contentious than rape and death. It
does not seem difficult then, to justify divesting from Sudan.

If the UC was strictly a for-profit business, the explanation
that it doesn’t weigh social concerns in its investments
would still be morally deplorable, but at least a little more easy
to understand.

But universities are more than businesses in the market of
education, and they hold more than just financial sway. They are
emblems of culture and intellectual advancement. As one of the top
institutions of public education in the country, the UC system has
to set the precedent for condemning such blatant human rights
abuses.

Unfortunately, at the moment, they are content to allow
atrocities in order to retain investment decisions made on
“the basis of financial criteria.”

Harvard has already divested a few million from Sudan, and many
other universities across the country are looking into following
suit. Supporting this nationwide campaign ““ and legitimizing
it further in the process ““ is the UC’s moral
obligation to this country. The UC Board of Regents should stop
dragging its feet and start to line up behind the divestment from
the Sudan campaign.

Issues are rarely ever so morally unambiguous as genocide.
It’s time the UC realized that and set an example. And maybe,
just maybe, we can all stop thousands more from dying.