Student petition advocates for a ‘Conflict-Free Duke’

A group of Duke students is making strides in its petition to make the University more conscious about conflict minerals and its investments.

Coalition for a Conflict-Free Duke is calling on the University to actively support the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo. To date, these efforts have resulted in an official statement from the University’s procurement department regarding conflict minerals earlier in the Fall and a unanimous Duke Student Government resolution, which called for a more robust University purchasing policy that would favor companies that do not use conflict minerals in their products. Now, the coalition is trying to take their cause to the Board of Trustees.

“We are proud that Duke is one of eight colleges that have issued a statement on conflict minerals, but now we are interested in the implementation of these proposals,” said junior Sanjay Kishore, president of the Duke Partnership for Service and member of the CCFD board.

The group wants to alter the University’s investment strategy with respect to electronic companies and conflict minerals, Kishore said. These minerals—materials mined from conflict-stricken areas, such as the Congo— are often found in electronic consumer products. Rebel groups in Congo use the profits from the mineral trade to control local populations and perpetuate the ongoing crisis.

According to its online petition that launched in early December, CCFD wants the University to implement a proxy voting guideline that would instruct the University to vote in favor of conflict-mineral conscious shareholder resolutions within companies in which it invests.

Members of CCFD met with the President’s Special Committee on Investment Responsibility Jan. 13 to discuss the viability of this petition.

Provost Peter Lange, chair of the President’s Special Committee, said the committee voted unanimously to clear the petition and pass it onto the Advisory Committee of Investment Responsibility. The Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility is a University body that was formed in 2004—along with the PSC—after the Board of Trustees adopted a policy on socially responsible investing.

If the ACIR agrees to pass the resolution, it will then be presented to the Board of Trustees, Lange said. DUMAC, the firm that manages investments for the Duke University Endowment, details its long-term framework for the endowment’s return on the University’s website. According to the framework, the University strives to invest roughly 38 percent of its endowment in public and private equity. Lange was unable to disclose which of these companies include conflict minerals in their supply chain.

Jones, along with fellow CCFD members, appealed to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who graduated from the Fuqua School of Business in 1988, in a video posted on Facebook in late December. The video, which urges Cook to embrace production of conflict-free Apple products, was picked up by The Huffington Post Jan. 12. Mining of minerals that power Apple electronics—such as tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold—subsidize the armed militias in the Congo, Jones said in the appeal.

“It is the responsibility of Duke students, who are major consumers of such electronics, to use their power as thought leaders to lead the movement against this atrocity,” Kishore added.

Kristin Huguet, manager of corporate public relations for Apple, said that neither Cook nor a representative from Apple have responded to the appeal. Huguet added that Apple published its 2012 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report Jan. 13, but that there is no correlation between the report’s release and The Huffington Post article. Apple’s report briefly addresses Congo’s conflict minerals by stating that small quantities of the specified metals are required in the manufacturing of their devices.

‘Forerunner for change’

The coalition, which is part of the national Conflict-Free Campus Initiative, sponsored the Eureka Symposium in October. Kishore said the group met a roadbloack when the athletics department did not allow CFCI to bring in a guest speaker from the Enough Project—a human rights organization based in Washington, D.C.—to speak about conflict minerals.

Representatives from Duke Athletics were unavailable to comment.

“It was a missed opportunity for [Duke] to make a decision for principle and not for money, and the athletic department knuckled under too quickly,” said Robin Kirk, program director of the Duke Human Rights Center.

Kirk added that one of the most difficult and important tasks for the coalition will be education about their initiative.

“At this point, people don’t really understand the [conflict minerals] issue, which makes it harder to conceive that they will easily give up devices that are so ubiquitous and necessary on a day-to-day basis,” she said.

Both Kirk and Kishore said that given Duke’s legacy in the history of civil rights, the University has potential to make a difference in the national use of conflict minerals in electronics.

“Duke has been a leader in civil rights changes in the past, and we hope that with continued efforts of its students and faculty, it will be a forerunner for change once again,” Kishore said.