On-campus organizations designed to pressure university officials to divest from companies that do business in Sudan have spread to numerous campuses throughout the nation, including American University.
"[Divestment] is a smart kind of activism that recognizes the role universities, and really money, can play," said Adam Gentleson, policy and advocacy manager for Campus Progress at the Center for American Progress.
Since Sudan relies so heavily on the investment made by foreign companies, divestment intends to pressure the government of Sudan to stop the genocide that is occurring by having universities stop conducting business with organizations that fund the Sudanese government.
"Foreign direct investment is how the Sudanese government pays for the genocide," said Una Ann Hardester, a senator at-large in the Undergraduate Senate and member of the Divestment Group. "FDI is the main source of income for the genocide."
There have been numerous efforts made on campuses nationwide to promote investment and Campus Progress helps support student divestment efforts through an action grant program, Gentleson said.
"We give them money, training and guiding with the press," he said.
Recently, Daniel Millenson, a student at Brandeis University, used an action grant to develop a national divestment program run by students called the Sudan Divestment Task Force, according to The New York Times.
[Over seven] universities have gotten rid of their divestment assets, including the University of California, Harvard University and Stanford University. Many other schools have launched on-campus organizations designed to reach the same goal, according The New York Times.
At AU, the divestment effort has been led by the Community Action and Social Justice Coalition Working Group on Sudan Divestment.
Travis McArthur, co-facilitator of CASJ, said their Sudan Divestment group has three goals; get the Student Government to pass legislation pressure the board of trustees to divest, petitioning the board of trustees to support divestment and encourage student representatives on the board of trustees to promote divestment in their reports.
Of the goals, the Divestment Working Group was successful in lobbying the student government to pass legislation concerning divestment.
"The resolution called on the board of trustees to divest from businesses working with the government of Sudan," McArthur said.
Hardester, who sponsored the legislation, said the resolution called for the board of trustees to investigate if AU invested in companies that fund the Sudanese government.
"We're relatively certain we're invested in some of those companies [that fund the Sudanese government] through the AU pension fund," Hardester said.
If it is found that AU does invest in these companies, the resolution calls for a policy of selective divestment which would force the administration to "divest from all companies that aid the Sudanese industrial-military complex" with the exception of humanitarian, medical and agricultural companies.
McArthur noted that "the resolution was passed unanimously, which is pretty of unheard of," showing the student support for divestment at AU.
"The resolution text was almost identical to the University of California resolution," McArthur said. The University of California Regents successfully passed legislation pressuring university officials to divest.
"We're trying to make sure they do this in the best way and the most expedient way," said McArthur, explaining that CASJ wants to target companies, such as natural energy companies, that will have a major effect on pressuring the Sudanese government.
McArthur noted that that the board had agreed in to a divestment plan against the human rights abuses in Burma and South Africa, saying that such action sets a precedent for action against the genocide occurring in Sudan.
