Wesleyan U. mulls Iraq divestment

MIDDLETOWN, Conn., May 15 (UPI) -- Wesleyan University in Middleton, Conn., has become the latest U.S. university hearing calls for divestiture of investments related to the war in Iraq.

Junior Erik Rosenberg is a member of Students For Ending the War in Iraq, told the Hartford (Conn.) Courant his group successfully lobbied the Student Assembly to adopt a resolution for divestiture.

"Can we really be comfortable with educating ourselves with money that was made through violence?" he asked.

The school's portfolio includes holdings in Raytheon and General Dynamics, both of which have major U.S. contracts in Iraq.

Rosenberg said he's confident he'll find support from incoming President Michael Roth, as a student at Wesleyan himself in 1977, reportedly staged a sleep-in protest in the president's office over school investments linked to apartheid in South Africa, the report said.

Anti-war students at the University of Michigan, Columbia University and Wayne State University are also demanding the institutions sell off shares in corporations that contract with the U.S. military to supply the war effort, the Courant said.