Paths to Sudan Divestment.

THE GENOCIDE TAKING PLACE in Darfur, Sudan, is showing no signs of stopping. Yet an important movement appears to be gaining momentum: Colleges and universities in the U.S., including the University of California, Brown, Amherst, and Princeton, are choosing to divest from companies with ties to Sudan.

Students have spent thousands of hours developing sophisticated campaigns to convince university leaders (as well as those from municipalities, states, and companies) to divest. This has led to a level of success, although some schools have divested from just a few companies instead of taking on many offenders. "I think that many of the university decisions thus far have been symbolic," says Daniel Millenson, a sophomore at Brandeis University (Mass.) and chair of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, a group that has pushed Sudan divestment to the top of IHE agendas. The 10-campus UC system developed a divestment plan in part due to the efforts of task force members.

According to Adam Sterling, national policy director for the task force, up until now "there's been no coordination of schools." The task force, for one, advocates a targeted approach, in which--to avoid divestment--companies with Sudan operations must not provide significant financial support to the Sudanese government, they must provide support to disaffected residents of Sudan, and they must take substantial action to halt the genocide.

"We think targeted divestment is more effective because it maximizes the impact on the Sudanese government while minimizing any potential impact on civilians and fiduciaries," says Millenson. The targeted method differs from the blanket approach, which was used to pressure South Africa to end apartheid and which encourages organizations to stop investing in any business with operations in an offending country. The University of Vermont and the University of Washington announced in June that they are following versions of the targeted approach.

Two private firms--Institutional Shareholders Services and KLD Research & Analytics have integrated into their investment research lists the targeted criteria. That gives IHEs even more information for evaluating their options on the touchy, but crucial, decisions relating to Sudan.