Ethics Clause Letters

Letter 1

USE THIS LETTER

Dear IU Foundation and Board of Trustees,

I am writing to urge you to revise your investment policy to prohibit investments in companies and countries that violate human rights. Right now, the IU Foundation manages assets worth over $3.5 Billion. While its managers are personally held to ethical standards around corruption, there are no safeguards for what the invested money actually goes to. IU Foundation could invest its money into weapons manufacturers who help commit war crimes, into resource extraction that fuels wars, and all sorts of blood money. As a global institution, these investment decisions will invariably impact alumni, current students, and future students. 

IU used to take responsibility for its investments. From 1978 through 2013, the Foundation had policies putting extra conditions on investments in South Africa for fear of supporting racial apartheid. While that particular regime has fallen, there are many other regimes that pose the same moral hazard today. Israel’s occupation of Palestine has been classified as apartheid, many companies stoke resource wars in the DRC and in the Sahara, and many companies supply repressive police forces doing the same work as South Africa’s did in the 1980s. The moral and financial duties you have as stewards of our university community’s money have not gone away. There are myriad good investments out there, and I have no doubt IU’s talented staff can easily find the ones that do not violate human rights and international law. It makes no sense that this policy doesn’t already exist.

Sincerely,

[NAME]

Letter 2

USE THIS LETTER

Dear Indiana University Foundation and whom it may concern,

I write to you as a (student, faculty, alum, staff, or community member) to call for Indiana University Foundation to add a clause to its investment policies that prohibit investment in companies and countries that violate human rights. Based on the Indiana Foundation’s values statement, Indiana University’s values should align with respecting human rights, advocating for social justice, and holding ourselves accountable for the harms our university perpetrates. Therefore we believe it is contrary to these values to continue to invest in an apartheid state that is currently carrying out a genocide (see multiple UN & genocide scholars definition of Genocide in regard to Gaza) and to invest in corporations who profit off of human rights violations. We support IU’s commitment to this value statement, and know that this value statement is at odds with the current actions of the IU Foundation. The last value is collaborative, and this says we share ideas willingly, knowing these collaborations bring about the best results. So we call on you to share IU foundations current investments. To hold itself accountable, we call for disclosure of all Indiana Foundation investments, divestment from the state of Israel, as well as from arms manufacturers and corporations that profit from the genocide in Gaza.

Sincerely,

Letter 3

USE THIS LETTER

Indiana University Foundation and other concerned parties,

I am emailing to ask the IU Foundation to add a clause to its investment policy prohibiting investment in companies and countries that violate human rights. The IU strategic plan website lists being a service to our state and beyond as a foundational pillar, expanding that this means “engagement, partnership, and collaboration that strengthens the totality of Indiana, the nation, and the world.” Upholding that pillar requires not only nurturing global citizens in the classroom and championing transformative research in the labs, but it also requires us to be critical of our monetary engagement as well.  Investments in companies and countries that violate human rights do not in fact strengthen the world, but rather harm it. This particularly egregious in the case of Israel’s genocide in Palestine where a number of companies have already been identified (by the UN and other organizations) as aiding a genocide, whether by providing weapons that fall onto Palestinian families or the construction equipment that demolishes their homes. However, this scrutiny can and should apply more broadly as well because it is coming from a general moral principle. ICE, for example, has kidnapped community members, separated families, and detained people in concentration camps, and I would hate to learn that IU’s investments have helped them do that. Finally, in order for such a clause to have any impact, the IU foundation would also have to commit to disclosing its investments so that way it can be accountable to the community.

As global citizens, we should be critical of how we invest our money regardless of if it affects us directly. However, in an interconnected world, I also do not see our fiduciary duty to invest money wisely IU’s students and community in contradiction critical investment that avoids human rights abuses. We have students who have family in Gaza, some even from Gaza themselves. What use is a few more dollars to renovate a gym or dorm for them if that comes at the expense of a student never being able to see their family again.

From,

[Name]