On Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 the Student Government Association of the University of Massachusetts Amherst passed a resolution calling for divestment from companies that profit from war and occupation! This is a great step forward!! Please consider thanking senators in the UMass Senate for this victory and stance, in the face of intimidation and misinformation. In the face of a disabling recession and its effects on our university, we thank them for voting against wars and occupation. Please consider sending thank you emails if you are or are not a UMass Amherst student,as a gesture of solidarity with this resolution, which has undergone so much opposition from the right on campus, and state what university you are from, and why you support and applaud their vote. It would be great to show the support we have from other campuses.

Here was the resolution passed:

WHEREAS The Mission of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, according to Trustee Document T 05-024, “is to provide an affordable and accessible education of high quality and to conduct programs of research and public service that advance knowledge and improve the lives of the people of the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world”;

WHEREAS UMass is a public institution, paid for by our tax dollars, the administration keeps private everything pertaining to those funds, especially our endowment, and with transparency, we can begin the process of instituting a permanent committee for ensuring that the University”s investments are socially responsible and do not contribute to the furtherance of war and the oppression of people around the world.

WHEREAS, due to their profit maximizing nature, it is in the interests of the following corporations to benefit from continued military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan: Halliburton, General Dynamics, General Electric, Motorola, DynCorp, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar and Northrop Grumman Corporation;

WHEREAS, the corporations previously listed have experienced record breaking profits as a result of their lasting involvement with the war in Iraq;

WHEREAS, the corporations previously listed have had a continued presence on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, through investments in research and recruiting events, among other things. We are strongly opposed to corporations with such involvement and complicity in the wars in the Middle East to be so intimately involved with an institution like the University of Massachusetts Amherst;

WHEREAS, in the year 1978 UMass Amherst divested from corporations complicit with the South African Apartheid regime, and in the year 2007 also divested from corporations complicit with genocide in Darfur;

BE IT RESOLVED that with further transparency, we insist that UMass create an investments committee that can screen for socially responsible investments and divest from companies that make their millions off the suffering in all countries facing war and occupation. We demand that the University divest from occupation and war and invest in the education of UMass students.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the UMass Amherst Student Government Association calls for constant vigilance in monitoring present and future investment decisions by the University.