York taking ethical investment motion to NUS
NUS President - Gemma TumeltyYUSU has taken its campaign against unethical investment to a national level by submitting a motion to the NUS for consideration by delegates at the Union’s annual conference. The motion, ‘Ethical Investments in Universities’ condemns investment in unethical companies by universities, and has already been taken on board by the University of York.
If the motion passes through the NUS conference held in Blackpool from April 1- 3, affiliated unions will begin to put their respective universities under pressure to implement a similar policy to York’s. YUSU President Anne-Marie Canning, who lead the movement in favour of submitting the motion to the NUS, said: “It is great that our university is setting an example to others as to how to invest ethically. We are setting a pressing national agenda.”
This will also be the first YUSU motion submitted to the NUS Conference for over 5 years. “This is important for YUSU. We are not an NUS confident union and looking at the result from our recent referendum, if we’re going to stay in NUS we want more of a stake in it, not just pay our affiliation fee. It would be good to get more of an exposure to national politics as a student union,” Canning said.
The motion grew from the work of Environment and Ethics Officers Tom Langley and Tom Williams. Through their lobbying, a paper has been accepted by the senior University administrators. York will undergo a process of creating a new reformed policy.
Other universities, such as the University of East Anglia, have had successes in investing in ethical sources, namely their pension scheme. The motion calls on the NUS to lobby and pressurize universities to “adopt a socially responsible investment (SRI) policy,” and “Divest where possible, its shares in any company that does not meet the mentioned SRI criteria.” It also mandates universities to allow their students’ union to “access and monitor” their university’s investment portfolios.
YUSU Societies and Communications Officer Sam Bayley said: “We hope that the motion can make a difference to the lives of the ordinary students on a wider level and are pleased that it’s been accepted for debate.” The motion will now to go forward to NUS Composite, where Union delegates will argue over what motions will go forward to Blackpool, and what order they will be scheduled in. At the conference, representatives will speak for and against the motion. A simple majority is required for it to become NUS policy.
