IU aiding genocide?

I have to wonder if President McRobbie and the board of trustees at IU are so hesitant to support a Sudanese divestment bill recently passed by the Bloomington Faculty Council because of new-found friendships with various Chinese universities. You might be asking yourself how I could make such a leap from IU to China to Sudan – but in all actuality, the steps are very small. Let me explain. IU employees are given pension funds for retirement. These pensions are typically through TIAA-CREF and Fidelity Investments. Both TIAA-CREF and Fidelity Investments take these pension funds and invest them in PetroChina. The majority of PetroChina’s business is with Sudanese oil companies, which are directly linked to the government. The Sudanese government uses this money to help buy tanks, ammunition and weapons that are used to perpetrate the genocide in Darfur. Recently, Professor Weitzman of the Religious Studies Department created a resolution that encouraged IU to find more ethical ways to invest IU’s pension funds. The resolution passed last week with the Council. However, McRobbie and the trustees are clearly not in favor of the measure. STAND, an anti-genocide coalition on IU’s campus, e-mailed President McRobbie for his opinion on the resolution but never heard from him. Someone in his office replied that IU does not have any DIRECT investments in Sudan, so clearly there was no need for alarm. Even if IU is indirectly funding the Sudanese government’s genocide against Darfur, shouldn’t that be enough to give the administration pause?\nPersonally, I am disgusted by the apathy for the divestment bill from the administrators. The state of Indiana divested all of its pension funds from Sudan last May! All but four states have taken some form of legislative action or are currently pursing such action, to remove pensions from PetroChina. Fifty-two colleges nation-wide have divested from Sudan. It’s about time that the IU administrators step up to the plate and join the rest of the nation in expressing our anger toward American companies for doing business with such genocidal regimes as Sudan – directly or indirectly. Oh, and by the way, President McRobbie – you can reply to our STAND e-mail at any time.