Letter will raise concerns about Darfur

President Lee Higdon

In response to a request from President Lee Higdon, the Board of Trustees' Executive Committee has agreed that CC will ask its investment managers to sell shares in any companies that provide support for the government of Sudan's genocidal campaign in Darfur.

In an e-mail to the College community, Higdon said he plans over the next few weeks to share his letter widely with presidents of peer colleges that hold similar investments, and encourage them to contact their fund managers as well.

Although CC has no direct investments in any company doing business in Sudan, the College indirectly owns co-mingled funds that hold relatively small investments in six companies that do business there. Those investments make up approximately $730,000 of the College's $189 million investment portfolio.

Various student groups, including STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur), and the faculty-led Committee on Institutional Ethics have held several programs to discuss socially responsible investing, the situation in Darfur and whether the College should divest.

Higdon said the situation must be carefully monitored to ensure that the College's responses to the genocide remain the most effective course of action.

In 1990, CC divested its holdings in companies that supported the apartheid regime in South Africa.