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For Immediate Release

November 3, 2011 4:30pm, Memorial Union Room 302 CONTACT: Danielle Bck 480-329-9007 danielleback@gmail.com

ASU Students Submit Arizona Public Records Requests to President Michael Crow and CFO Morgan Olsen
Activists Call for Increased Transparency and Student Input in the Investing Process
Tempe, AZ On Thursday, November 3, 2011, the Arizona State University Coalition for Human Rights will submit two Arizona Public Records Requests to ASU President Michael Crow and ASU CFO Morgan Olsen. Since 2006, human rights organizations at ASU have attempted to gain access to ASUs investing information to determine if ASU invests in organizations complicit in human rights violations or socially irresponsible policies. STAND, the Student Anti-Genocide Coalition at ASU, is concerned that ASU may be investing in companies complicit with the genocidal regime in North Sudan. Oil companies like PetroChina, Sinopec, Petronas, and Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) have propped up the genocidal government, which has been responsible for over 300,000 deaths and the displacement of more than 2.5 million individuals. As Human Rights Watch reported in Sudan: Oil Companies Complicit in Human Rights Abuses, Oil companies operating in Sudan were aware of the killing, bombing, and looting that took place in the south, all in the name of opening up the oilfields These facts were repeatedly brought to their attention in public and private meetings, but they continued to operate and make a profit as the devastation went on. Students for Justice in Palestine seeks information about ASUs investments in companies that support the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. Corporations like Caterpillar, which supplies weaponized bulldozers for the destruction of Palestinian civilian homes, and General Dynamics, which provides tanks, F-16 jet equipment, and thousands of MK-84 general purpose bombs to the Israeli army. Most recently, these weapons were used in Israels 2008-2009 assault on the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians. The information gained from the public records request will also be used to determine the extent of ASUs investments in sweatshop labor, as well as bring transparency to the investing process and criteria used by the University. These public records requests follow failed discussions between the University and the Coalition for Human Rights over a proposal to create an Advisory Committee for Socially Responsible Investing at ASU. This committee would ensure that ASUs uses its investments, contracts, and shareholder proxy voting to promote human rights and social responsibility at an international level. The advisory committee would also increase transparency, as well as student and faculty input in the investing process, much like the University Committee for Labor and Human Rights Issues at the University of Arizona.

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