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History
Students for Environmental and Economic Justice

Founding

In 1998, EarthCo, Columbia's then-only environmental group, started a working group on socially responsible investment (SRI). That group developed and established ties with other organizations, including the Student Alliance to Reform Corporations, in order to better pursue responsible investment policies at CU. Students for Socially Responsible Investment became an SGB-recognized group in 1999, separating from EarthCo so that it could take a more confrontational stance without jeapordizing EarthCo's relationship with the administration.

Socially Responsible Investing

In 1999, SSRI began a petition to demand that Columbia establish principles for responsible investment, eventually presenting John Masten (Columbia's finance VP) with 1,000 signatures and 25 statements of support from student groups. While the administration refused to disclose its stock portfolio, it did establish a task force, which eventually established Columbia's Advisory Committee to the Trustees on Socially Responsible Investing. The committee disclosed the portfolio and began accepting student input; SSRI began to coordinate left and environmental groups in presentations to the Committee. In 2003, Barnard's Committee held its first hearing, again as a result of concerted student pressure.

Developing Campaigns

In 2000, SSRI became Students for Environmental and Economic Justice, and began to take on broader campaigns. In 2002, SEEJ got fair trade coffee at most dining areas on campus. SEEJ, in cooperation with Rainforest Action Network, subsequently began a campaign against CitiGroup, which helped force Citi to negotiate and eventually establish groundbreaking, comprehensive environmental standards. That same year, SEEJ merged with Columbia Students Against Sweatshops, which in 2000 forced Columbia to take a stance against the use of unfair labor practices in the factories making its logo clothing. In 2003, SEEJ used this commitment to ask Columbia sever a contract with Land's End for its illegal firings in El Salvador. Columbia became the second school to cut a contract, and Land's End capitulated and sought employment for the fired workers.

Between 2002 and 2004, SEEJ quadrupled in size and began to take on a wide array of campaigns. As is, SEEJ is one of the major watchdogs of Columbia's investments, purchases, and labor practices. Rather than taking on "everything under the sun," we make strategic and effective changes to support ecological sustainability, human freedom, and the struggles of indigenous and working people.

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