Last Friday the University's Board of Visitors approved the divestment of funds in corporations that do business with Sudan.
Following both the U.S. government's declaration of the atrocities in Darfur to be "genocide" and the U.N. condemnation of the Sudanese government for human rights violations, the Board responded to the mounting evidence of genocide with the move towards divestment, said University spokesperson Carol Wood. As such, the Board makes a public declaration that the University will not invest in businesses working with Sudan.
"After thoughtful review, the Board decided to make this important decision," Wood said.
Second-year College student Laura Harris, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur Divestment co-chair, worked to present the idea to the Board. Divestment was "used with great success in South Africa," she said.
Citing the divestment of many companies to combat South Africa's official racial segregation, she acknowledged one key difference with the Sudan divestment.
The Commonwealth of Virginia forced the University to divest in the South Africa case, while the state has not come to such a decision concerning Sudan.
"We've never made a connection with business and morality before," Harris said.
The University is the 30th school in the nation to divest from Sudan following Harvard and Yale, among others.
"The divestment campaign for Darfur on a national level is looking very big and powerful," Harris said.
While only an economic weapon, divestment may prove to be a significant threat to Sudan, whose economy is based mainly on foreign investment in the energy and telecommunications industry.
STAND divestment co-chair Sharon Steine saw an important part of the resolution was that the Board would look into their investments run by the University of Virginia Investment Management Company. UVIMCO did not have any investments in Sudan-supporting companies.
"They don't have them and pledged to not get any," Steine said.
While the divestment plan does not meet all of STAND's requests about divestment, the organization has accepted the Board's decision.
"They met our basic demand ... to draw a connection between the genocide and investment," Harris said.
STAND is now turning its focus to persuading the state of Virginia to take similar measures.
"For the moment, we're very happy with what they've done," Harris said.
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