Harvard Crimson: Harvard Activists Rally, Petition for Divestment From Farmland, Prison Industry

The Harvard Crimson covered HPDC’s petition launch, which was released on Monday.

The Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign released a petition last Monday calling on the University to withdraw its investments from companies tied to the prison industry. As of Monday afternoon, the petition had garnered 1,081 signatures.

The petition, which lists several demands for Bacow, asks the University to “divest Harvard’s holdings from companies that profit from the prison-industrial complex” and invest instead in “communities disproportionately affected by mass incarceration.” The activists also called on Harvard to disclose all of its endowment holdings and specify any stake Harvard may have in companies that profit from the prison industry.

Business and Law School student Amber A. James ’11, an organizer for the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign, said Harvard affiliates should be made aware of the University’s investments in companies with connections to the prison industry.

“Harvard students have a right to know but also to not be associated with an institution that is supporting the prison industrial complex, which is responsible for caging millions of people, surveilling millions more people, inflicting violence, harm, and oppression on people of color, on low income people, and communities from which they come,” James said.

Read more here.