Becoming the first university to adjust its investment policy in light of the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Stanford’s Board of Trustees approved a proxy voting guideline that will require the university to vote "yes" on shareholder resolutions requiring companies to disclose the use of minerals from eastern Congo in electronics products. Stanford’s Board of Trustees, which adopted this proxy voting guideline in response to a campus-wide campaign by Stanford STAND, thanked student activists for raising the issue:
"Stanford students, through diligent research and constructive advocacy, played a key role in bringing this issue to the attention of both the university’s Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing, and to the board’s Special Committee on Investment Responsibility," [Board of Trustees chair Leslie Hume] said.
In the chapter’s press release, incoming Stanford STAND co-president Mia Newman called on anti-genocide activists across the country to mobilize around conflict minerals in the Congo:
“We call on the students, faculty and alumni of other academic institutions to hold accountable companies in which their schools invest for unknowingly funding the ongoing atrocities perpetrated by Congolese armed groups. We hope that the story behind Stanford’s unprecedented action can serve as a model for similar efforts elsewhere."