* Bux et Veritas

Univ. to reconsider controversial investment


By Vivian Yee and Nora Caplan-Bricker
Staff Reporter, Staff Reporter
The Yale Daily News
Published Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Yale’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility may reevaluate its stance on the University’s investment in HEI Hotels & Resorts in the wake of Brown University president Ruth Simmons’s letter to HEI, in which Simmons expressed concern over allegations that the company violated labor laws.
Almost a year and a half after students at campuses across the country — including Yale’s — began protesting their universities’ investments in the hotel management company, Simmons wrote to HEI CEO Gary Mendell in February, saying Brown may rethink investments in HEI in light of reports that...

#1 By $tudent Activi$m 5:26a.m. on March 23, 2010

Bravo, Brava!
This is true $tudent activi$m. [sic]

PK
http://theantiyale.blogspot.com

#2 By Rudy '73 9:46a.m. on March 23, 2010

Don't forget that the national campus protest campaign against HEI is organized and fueled by the national union, UNITE HERE. http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2008/12/03/news-analysis-union-propels-hei-protests/
HEI's main offense is not agreeing to UNITE's demands for "card-check neutrality", which effectively eliminates secret ballots in union elections.

Universities' and reasonable people's judgment on HEI should be reserved until a verdict on the complaints has been rendered. Did offenses occur and if so were they committed by knucklehead local managers or as a result of a systematic strategy?

#3 By Y12 10:26a.m. on March 23, 2010

Finally a chance that Yale will do the right thing...of course it would not be so bold as to be a leader in ethical investing. I urge everyone, however, to continue to watch this closely--the ACIR has feigned movement many times only to drop things when the spotlight is no longer on.

#4 By Headliner 2:01p.m. on March 23, 2010

Headline is "Univ. to reconsider controversial investment"

The use of the word "university" implies a figure or body with some official capacity, power, and/or authority to perform said reconsideration, with potential for some change in strategy. Think Swensen or Levin, for example.

I did not get that from the article.

#5 By yale2011 5:23p.m. on March 23, 2010

FINALLY, ACIR! I hope the right choice is made.

Good think you are finally covering this, YDN.

Nice work, UOC

#6 By Brown alum 7:16p.m. on March 23, 2010

Brown should look at its own conduct vis-a-vis efforts to organize unions. Presently unionized are staff in Brown libraries, food services, and facilities management, but in other departments staff have been discouraged from (if not bullied about) unionizing.
Simmons is, I think, in damage-control mode after her much-reported resignation from the Goldman Sachs board. That resignation followed a brilliant op-ed column in the Brown Daily Herald that initiated an "emperor-has-no-clothes" phase in Simmons's heretofore under-scrutinized administration. May the scrutiny continue.

#7 By Charles 11:47p.m. on March 23, 2010

While the ACIR has taken a step in the right direction, the question remains as to why Yale must always be second...on a range of policies, we seldom take leadership. Rather we wait until Harvard or Brown or Columbia acts first...