The Student Assembly has urged the Board of Trustees to divest from the College's tobacco-related holdings -- an issue likely to be debated among Board members in upcoming meetings.
Newly elected Assembly President Josh Green '00 met with Acting Vice President and Treasurer Win Johnson earlier this week to discuss student opposition to the College's investments in the tobacco industry, saying the holdings are incompatible with the College's moral mission.
"Investing in tobacco is inconsistent with everything that the College works for," Juan Carlos Serna '97 -- who wrote a letter to the Board last term urging the Trustees to divest tobacco stocks -- told The Dartmouth last night. "We have an institution with a medical school dedicated to studying ways of countering the effects of tobacco."
Protests against the College's tobacco investments come on the heels of a national debate over sweeping tobacco legislation proposed by Arizona Republican Senator John McCain. The bill, which McCain targeted toward reducing underage smoking, failed in the Senate last month after a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign by the tobacco industry.
Johnson said he is "not prepared to comment on this issue," but added that the College would consider the Assembly proposal "very carefully."
"There are all sorts of considerations to be made," Johnson said. "We still have to do some research on what impact divestment will have on the College."
Johnson said he did not know how much of the College's $1.5 billion endowment was invested in tobacco-related companies, but he added the College does not normally disclose details about its investments.
Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop '37, has repeatedly denounced the College's investment in the tobacco industry.
He told The Dartmouth last year that divesting from tobacco stocks would be in the College's best interest.
"Tobacco is a product manufactured for only one reason, and that is to addict people, and any socially responsible institution wouldn't participate in that," Koop's former deputy Michael McGinnis told The Dartmouth last November.
But business leaders have argued that tobacco investments are lucrative and that it would be difficult to find an investment equally lucrative should the College pull out its tobacco stocks.
Paul Danos, dean of the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, told The Dartmouth last year that "trying to parcel out all of the social effects is very hard, especially if it results in lower returns. There is no way you can sort for big organizations that are investing billions of dollars."
The final decision will be up to the Trustees. Trustee Chair Stephen Bosworth '61 -- U.S. ambassador to South Korea -- could not be reached for comment last night.
