David Hylden & David Judd

olumbia has...

7.8 billion in net assets, of which $6.1 billion is invested in the equity market. Only $805 million is in publicly traded stocks, and thus governed by Columbia’s socially responsible investing policy. This is less than Columbia’s 2006 net gain in assets of $949 million - a 13.7% return on its investments.

Columbia owns $600 million in “institutional real estate”, or “properties proximate to the University’s Morningside and Washington Heights campuses,” and $1.8 billion in “land, buildings, and equipment.” These figures are calculated at “cost net of accumulated depreciation,” which means that increases in real estate prices since their purchase are not taken into account, so the property is almost certainly undervalued. Columbia pays no property tax on this because it is a non-profit institution.

In the last 30 years, Columbia has converted more than 6,000 affordable housing units for its exclusive institutional use. It has not pledged to build a single unit of affordable housing in the planned Manhattanville expansion.

olumbia invests...

Over $4 million in three military contractors who produce the weapons, from tanks to cruise missiles, used in Iraq: $1,571,106 in Lockheed Martin, $1,446,666 in General Dynamics, and $1,154,363 in Raytheon. General Dynamics and Raytheon have both stated explicitly in SEC filings that they consider U.S. withdrawal from Iraq a “risk factor” for their future profitability, and consequently Columbia’s.

$2,059,992 in the Jones Apparel Group: a clothing manufacturer currently the target of a nationwide student anti-sweatshop campaign. In the most notorious example, more than 1200 workers at a factory in Kenya which produces for Jones Apparel were fired after protesting abuses in 2006.

$2,878,158 in Wal-Mart Stores, currently the subject of a class-action lawsuit on behalf of over two million female employees charging gender discrimination. A study at UC Berkeley’s Labor Center found that Wal-Mart has reduced the overall take-home pay of retail workers in the U.S. by a total of $4.7 billion per year.

$239,772 in Chiquita Brands Intl., which pled guilty this March to paying $1.7 million for “security” to a paramilitary group identifi ed by the U.S. State Department as a “foreign terrorist organization” at its Colombian subsidiary. Paramilitaries killed more than 3,700 people in the region of Uraba during the seven years Chiquita made these payments. Columbia Por Colombia has initiated a campaign to force a Columbia University boycott.

$17,307,150 in the top pharmaceutical companies. This includes $7.8 million in Pfizer Inc., the largest pharmaceutical corporation in the word. Pfizer is listed as 17th in the top 100 Corporate Criminals of the ‘90s and is accused of illegally testing drugs on children.

$4.7 million in Nestle: The largest food corporation in world, Nestle is accused of using child slave labor in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and convicted of illegally pumping water in Brazil. It is implicated in numerous legal issues in Colombia including assassinations, illegal labeling, and union busting. Currenly, Nestle is involved in a legal scandal in Thailand with genetically modified foods—which are illegal there.

In 6 of the top 10 Corporate Criminals of 2004, and 3 of the top 10 in 2005.

$5.6 million in Nissin Food products, the founder of Instant Noodles – a wise investment for a college.