Bowdoin College has decided to divest any direct holdings in the African country Sudan and to avoid investing in companies in the future that have holdings in the country as long as the genocide there continues. The largely Arab Sudanese government has fought non-Arab rebels for three years and has allowed more than 200,000 people in the Darfur region to be killed and another 2.5 million to leave homeless, according to a recent Reuters report. The Bowdoin College Board of Trustees voted unanimously to divest on November 11 after the school's staff, faculty, students, and trustees spent months studying the issue.
Strangely, Bowdoin doesn't currently invest in any companies dealing in Sudan, but the vote was created to help establish a policy for future investments.
"Where there is universal agreement that crimes against humanity stand in violation of our commitment to the College conception of the common good, we must take actions...that are commensurate with the violation in order to stay true to our mission and to reinforce for our community and our successors that our commitment to serve the common good is genuine and enduring," wrote Bowdoin College President Barry Mills in a press release announcing the vote.