AU should invest its endowment in socially responsible companies that respect human rights, Cheyenna Weber, organizing director of the Responsibility Endowment Coalition, said to a group of students during a teach-in Thursday in the McDowell Formal Lounge.
"You don't have to be an asshole to make money," she said.
The REC encourages universities like AU to re-evaluate the companies in which they invest their endowment, Weber said.
In the few examples Weber gave, a student body can divert a university's investment spending away from companies that aren't environmentally friendly or don't respect human rights.
Michael Haack, a graduate student in the School of International Service, said the university should make responsible investments.
"The point of the social responsibility is to have the values of the university line up with their investments," Haack said.
Alex Labant, a freshman in SIS, said the teach-in inspired him to learn more about financial transparency.
"After the presentation, I was motivated to work with other CASJ members to start a dialogue with companies and to ensure that the university is making socially responsible investments," he said.
REC has already impacted campuses throughout the country and has program representatives at 16 of the top universities, including Yale, Brown and Cornell, according to Weber.
AU currently uses its $400 million endowment to invest in companies that return investment profits to the school. AU uses those profits to operate the institution, according to Weber's presentation.
While students and faculty have lobbied for individual investment changes, there is an initiative to make the process more formal with the assistance of REC. AU Solidarity, an on-campus organization, has already met with President Neil Kerwin several times, and he is interested in developing such a coalition, Weber said in an e-mail.
CASJ formed a working group on Sudan divestment. After group members collected signatures for a petition, the Undergraduate Senate passed a resolution encouraging AU to divest from Sudan. The university pulled its investments out of companies that do business with Sudan in September 2006.
CASJ sponsored Thursday's teach-in as a part of Radical Rush Week.
