University of York adopts ethical investment policy

In recent weeks the campaign has been stepped up with over 2,000 signatures collected and a protest march organised on Friday 27th February, during which representatives of the campaign met the university’s Registrar and Secretary and Director of Finance.

It follows on from years of campaigning, during which the Students' Union has had an active policy supporting the implementation of such a policy.

The current policy does not commit the university to selling off its £1 million worth of shares in the arms trade held in its pension fund. However, campaigners are hopeful that the university's acceptance of the new ethical investment policy, with a clearer framework, will ultimately lead to the university selling its investments in BAE systems and Rolls Royce.

The acceptance of the policy also means that if any university group does decide to keep investing in the companies this will have to be acknowledged by the university as irresponsibly putting finance ahead of ethics.

It will then fall to the university to follow through with their promise of "not knowingly investing in companies whose activities include practices which directly pose a risk of serious harm to individuals or groups".

YUSU Environment and Ethics Officer John Nicholls welcomed the adoption of the policy; however, he also highlighted the work that still needed to be done.

Nicholls said: "The policy needs to be implemented by a committee and we need to push for as much student representation, and staff representation that is sympathetic to our aims, as possible."

He added: "We also need to make the case that the policy should definitely be applied to the pension fund, so that the arms trade investments can be removed, an issue that hangs in the balance at the moment."

Concern to see the policy applied to the pension fund is also shared by other students who want to arrange meetings with the trustees of the pension fund.

They are also calling on the university to create a working group including students and academics, representing departments whose work can be seen as at odds with continued investment in the arms trade, such as the Post-war Reconstruction Unit and Centre for Applied Human Rights.

Student Georgia Pettifar said: "We want the university to know that an ethical investment policy means bringing real ethical considerations into financial decision making.

"We won't stand for a policy that is ethical only in name, and we hope to work closely with the university in developing a new way of looking at investment that ensures the university's capital is working hard to support the university's wider aims of improving the lives of all and common understanding between all."

Throughout the campaign there has also been concern that there has been a lack of transparency from the university, with senior staff contradicting each other. In response to the BBC's question of whether York "invest[s] just short of a million pounds in BAE" the Registrar and Secretary David Duncan replied: "I'm not sure that they do."

Jason Rose, a key campaign co-ordinator, agreed with this concern stating: "Our freedom of information request came back with contradictory figures. The University Records Manager informed us that at the end of January, the Pension Fund held 168,310 shares in BAE Systems and 95,717 in Rolls Royce which represents an increase of shares in since March 2008 when the total investment was £997,342."

Rose added: "For whatever reason, the university has failed to be transparent to its stakeholders."

Concerns over how the funds are actually managed have also been raised, with various university staff answering queries with contradictions and even the Director of Finance Graham Gilbert being unable to give full information.

This has led to the concern that the trustees may use this lack of clarity as an excuse to avoid following through with the university's policy.

Nevertheless the adoption of the policy by the university is a key milestone in the campaign to get the university to disinvest in the arms trade and is certainly testimony to the commitment of all involved.

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