University investment ignores principles

Sometimes, we all need to be reminded of who we are. For the Santa Clara administration, this is one of those times.

A story in last week's The Santa Clara revealed that a group of students, led by sophomore Kyle Ozawa, is working to push the university to get rid of its stock in Massey Energy Company, a mining company with widespread documented environmental abuses.

The students witnessed the abuses firsthand after going on an immersion trip to the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, where they saw the devastation that the company's mining process had caused, both for the environment and for people in the area.

Massey's mining method, mountaintop removal, is a process by which a layer of earth is removed from a mountain to reveal coal underneath.

This process creates a coal sludge, which can pollute local rivers and contaminate communities by releasing heavy metals like arsenic and mercury, as well as carcinogenic chemicals.

According to the May 2006 issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Massey has had over 4,000 environmental citations from the West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection, more than four times the violations of their closest competitor.

In October 2002, a Martin County, Ky., Massey impoundment ruptured, releasing more than 306 million gallons of sludge into local waterways, leading the Environmental Protection Agency to call it "the worst environmental disaster in the southeastern United States."

As a Jesuit school whose commitment to social justice is an important part of its identity, Santa Clara should be taking the lead in fighting injustices like this, not profiting from them.

A real commitment to social justice is holistic. It is more than the things that are said Sunday nights in Mission Church or that are taught in environmental studies classes. A real commitment means remembering our core values and applying these values to our actions, especially those involving financial decisions.

We should not allow ourselves to forget these principles simply because a stock is performing well.

Perhaps most disturbing is Vanity Fair's account of one Massey plant that was built in 2003 within 300 feet of a school. According to the magazine, children in the area now share chronic symptoms of runny noses, coughs, stomachaches and diarrhea. The chemicals from the plant pollute the local air and could possibly contaminate the school's water supply. The magazine described one girl who gets such bad stomachaches that every night she asks her mother to pray that her stomach will feel better.

Given the thousands of people who die each year due to coal-dust related diseases, according to various environmental agencies, this hardly seems coincidental.

Recently, University President Paul Locatelli, S.J., has been an outspoken advocate for the rights of immigrants, and many others on campus have rallied for their cause, as well. Just as we are compelled to speak out against unfair legislation from the government, the university should not take a hypocritical stance in their own investment policies.

Surely with all of the business savvy on this campus, we could figure out a way to re-direct money invested in Massey to companies that are committed to social responsibility or finding alternative sources of energy.

Ozawa and the rest of the students in his group should be commended for their hard work and courage in standing up for something they believe in.

Now it's time for the university to pay attention.