Union Theological Seminary (at Columbia) trustees endorse divestment from 'companies profiting from war in Palestine'

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/05/09/union-theological-seminary-trustees-endorse-divestment-from-companies-profiting-from-the-war-in-palestine/

The Union Theological Seminary announced on Thursday that its board of trustees endorsed a policy supporting the institution’s divestment from “companies substantially and intractably benefiting from the war in Palestine.”

The board’s investment committee, which adopted the divestment plan, had been working on establishing it since November 2023, according to the announcement.

The institution, which has a partnership with Columbia, is one of the first in the United States with a stated plan to divest its endowment from companies tied to the war in Gaza. UTS houses Columbia’s constituent faculty of theology but has a separate endowment from Columbia’s. The UTS endowment is worth about $110 million, a UTS spokesperson wrote in a statement to Spectator.

The announcement outlined specific steps the institution will take to alter its investment portfolios, including revising the investment policy statement section regarding “responsible investing” to add “an overt reference to the Israel-Palestine hostilities.”

[msongs]

1. of course this includes all the USA arms merchants...and the saudis no doubt nt

[Gore1FL]

2. I suspect that's about the same list as those supporting Ukraine

I appreciate what they are trying to do, I appreciate taking a stand. I don't see how this is goping to be scoped meaningfully. I suspect they'll divest the obvious things like LMT, NOC, GD, BA, RTX, etc. and call it a day. That's just a guess.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. The seminary likely already isn't invested in those companies.

The decision aligns with UTS’s history of adopting “socially responsible investment” policies. UTS’s investment policy already prevents “investments in armaments, weapons, and defense manufacturers, as well as companies that participate in human rights violations,” the announcement reads. In 2014, UTS also became the first institute of higher education to divest from fossil fuels.

UTS’s statement also highlights the institution’s “early divestment from the dehumanizing system of apartheid in South Africa” and its screening process to ward “against investing in for-profit prisons.”

(snip)

The statement notes that in addition to creating additional screens to “determine a list” of companies profiting from the war, UTS will be “identifying resources to monitor changes to company activity over time.”

[malaise]

4. My late cousin earned a doctorate there

He and his very progressive Canadian wife marched at Selma.
They would both have loved this.