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Students decry UH ties to Darfur

The University should reconsider its connection to companies doing business in Sudan, student leaders said following a Daily Cougar investigation.

A review of financial documents established relationships between UH and two Chinese oil companies that international human rights groups say have exacerbated the conflict in Darfur.

"I feel disappointed in the University’s associations with such unethical companies," Teresa Pham, co-founder of UH chapter of the Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, or STAND, said. "We need to step up our awareness about world issues and take responsibility for our investments and associations."

Documents obtained by the Coalition for Responsible Investment-UH show the University has 588,000 shares of stock in its endowment fund in the China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., also known as Sinopec.

According to the documents, which could not be independently verified by University officials by press time, the stocks were purchased through third-party affiliate AllianceBernstein for $1.34 per share.

The shares are worth approximately $1.05 as of Wednesday, meaning holdings total more than $610,000.

Sinopec is among the "highest offenders" in the Darfur conflict, according to a Sudan Divestment Task Force report, which advocates public divestment from companies tied to Sudan to curb the conflict’s funding.

Revenue from the relationship between Sinopec and the Sudanese government helps finance the Sudanese military, divestment activists have said.

The conflict – which has killed at least 300,000 civilians since it started in 2003 according to a United Nations estimate released Tuesday – has been aided immensely by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s regime, human rights organizations have said.

The U.S. State Department and some nonprofit organizations have said the conflict constitutes genocide, with the Sudanese-backed janjaweed militia systematically expelling and killing tribes in Darfur.

Student leaders said UH should address the genocide by divesting its Sinopec holdings.

"Such open-handed financial support of a company connected to state-sponsored genocide is unsettling," CRI-UH President Sameer Siddiqi said. "Divestment should only be considered in the most serious circumstances. The genocide in Darfur is such a circumstance."

Pham said divestment is necessary.

"I fully understand that it is easier said than done, and I will give the University the benefit of the doubt if they tell us that they are doing all they can to decrease their involvement with such companies and eventually divest from the completely," she said. "The University cannot sweep this issue under the rug because the lives of innocent civilians and children are on the line."

In 2007, the Texas Senate passed the bipartisan Stop the Darfur Genocide Act, mandating the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and the Employee Retirement System of Texas holdings in businesses with Sudanese relationships be divested.

The state maintains a list of "scrutinized" companies in whic the TRS and ERS are not allowed to invest which includes Sinopec.

"If the state of Texas considers such companies unfit for the investment of public monies, then the University of Houston should too," Siddiqi said.

UH’s holdings send a negative message, he said.

"Such revelations give the impression that UH is either indifferent to supporting such firms, or is simply unaware of where its money is being invested," Siddiqi said. "The University of Houston ought to set more specific guidelines for investment managers. If you look at the guidelines right now, there’s no mention of ethics or social responsibility – that needs to change."

UH also awards masters of business administration degrees to senior-level management of Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corp. through the Bauer College of Business’ Beijing Global Energy Management program.

Employees from the companies, including vice presidents and senior directors, take an accelerated MBA course taught in China by UH faculty members.

Bauer College Associate Dean of Graduate Programs Latha Ramchand said the program, which graduated its first class in December 2006, has helped students advance in their positions.

"It’s all management people that are poised to go to the next stage, so to speak," Ramchand said. "In the second group I know that at least a third of the class even got promoted before they graduated."

CNPC is another "highest offender" in Darfur according to the Sudan Divestment Task Force, which said the company has a 40 percent stake in Sudan’s largest oil consortium, the Greater Nile Petroleum Operation Co.

The CNPC’s expansion in Sudan was "accompanied" by the displacement and killing of people living in territory sought by the company, and afterward the CNPC employed Sudanese military personnel involved with the expulsion as guards for oil fields built in the depopulated area, according to an Amnesty International report.

The Bauer program, which has graduated more than 100 executives, should consider severing connections with CNPC and Sinopec, student leaders said.

"I would hope that Bauer would consider disassociating itself from these companies," said Esmeralda Salinas, president of Amnesty International at UH.

Ramchand said the college is open to investigating the roles of Sinopec and CNPC in Darfur, but educating the employees can make a difference, noting that students must take a business law and ethics course.

"Nothing opens up peoples’ minds like education," she said. "We are training people to think like we do. Some of the things we talk about are not germane to the environment there. We believe that at the end of the day, that’s really what’s going to help these countries."

Student leaders also questioned the wisdom of accepting grants from such companies.

According to a fiscal year 2007 report from the Division of Research, CNPC granted $36,000 to geoscience adjunct professor Hua-Wei Zhou for geophysics research.

"I can understand the hesitation many regents and faculty members may feel when they hear the words ‘ethics’ and ‘grants’ in the same sentence," Siddiqi said. "Grants are central to our goal of attaining ‘Tier 1’ status, but that doesn’t mean we should abandon our moral and social responsibilities to receive them."

Concerned students can help by raising awareness in their everyday lives, Pham said.

"They can send the University’s president a letter or e-mail voicing their opinions," she said. "If we join together, we can make our University a better place."

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