In today’s Daily Texan, the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UT and A&M’s stockbrokers) announced that they won’t be divesting from the Sudan, even after a thousand staff and students signed a letter asking them to do so. Investing ethically, wrote chief executive officer of UTIMCO’s CEO Bruce Zimmerman, would be “a very dangerous precedent, a slippery slope.”
Which could slightly annoy the legislature, which last session unanimously passed in both chambers Senate Bill 247, aka the Sudan divestment bill. The bill removed all investments by the Employees Retirement System (ERS) and Teachers Retirement System in “scrutinized companies” that are seen as contributing to the Darfur genocide. Gov. Rick Perry, who backed Sudan divestment in last year’s state of the state address and lauded SB 247 as one of the lege’s best achievements, might also not be too happy.
Since UT’s claims of poverty in last session’s Senate Finance and House Appropriations committee meetings were met with what could generously be described as disbelief, it will be interesting to see if UTIMCO’s stance has lost them even more budget-building friends.
This article appears in January 18 • 2008.
