The University's Free Burma Coalition urged Student Council on Tuesday night to pass a resolution that would call upon the Board of Visitors to require the University "to disclose any ties with corporations that conduct business in Burma."
Burma is a developing nation in Southeast Asia under the rule of a military regime now called the State Peace and Development Council. Since 1962, the military regime in control in Burma, has inflicted forced labor, torture and rape on the Burmese people.
In the last democratic elections held in 1990, the regime denied political power to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy candidate, even after she received 82 percent of the popular vote.
According to the resolution, the University owns $2.5 million in investments in companies that conduct business with Burma. Of those investments, $2.1 million are with UNOCAL, an oil corporation that has benefited monetarily from the slave labor in Burma.
California-based UNOCAL is one of few American companies still conducting business with the military regime.
The resolution before Council requests that the Board vote in favor of a shareholder resolution that would require UNOCAL to report on all payments made to the military regime or address the human rights conditions in Burma.
Third-year College students Andy Price and Michael Freedman-Schnapp began the initiative almost three years ago to convince the University to dissociate from companies deal with the military regime. They worked with Jeremy Woodrum, director of the Free Burma Coalition in Washington, D.C., to organize their efforts.
Now 25 universities in the nation have taken the necessary measures to divest from Burma.
The resolution before Council resembles that passed at American University, Price said.
"A lot of great ideas start at college campuses," Price said. "That's how democracy began in Burma when students demanded basic rights."
At this point, Price and Freedman-Schnapp have the support of 33 University organizations and 15 faculty members.
"This is not unprecedented," Council Legislative Affairs Committee Chairman Nick Jabbour said.
In 1985, the University divested from South Africa during the apartheid due to student protest, Jabbour said.
"Several representatives on Council have expressed a desire to move on this," Council president Joe Bilby said.
Council plans to do some fact-finding of its own in the next couple of weeks, Bilby said.
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