Responsible Investment Now!

• Where is your money going? 
• Are Vanderbilt’s investments in line with your values? 
• VU’s irresponsible investment in HEI Hotels & Resorts

 HEI Who? – Daniel Cunningham

Started by two brothers from Cornell, HEI Hotels & Resorts buys hotels and streamlines their management procedures, saving them money and making them more efficient. Sounds great, right? But complaints have been pouring in from HEI hotels around the country about worker abuse and anti-union intimidation. When HEI “streamlines” a hotel, they push workers’ hours and working conditions beyond the breaking point and trap workers by keeping them from unions. And the worst part for us is that Vanderbilt is implicated. HEI’s funding consists largely of investments from prestigious universities, and while Vanderbilt’s investments are highly secretive, we have evidence that we are among the contributing schools. HEI has used Vanderbilt’s logo on corporate slideshows listing their investors, which led VSN to ask the administration about our involvement. Various officials, including Chancellor Zeppos and our Chief Investment Officer, have on numerous occasions (both written and verbal) refused to comment on Vanderbilt’s investment in HEI. As concerned students, we have no choice but to put the ugly pieces together.    

Why Should You Care? – Joshua Rogen

You should care about HEI because you allow them to operate unethically. Your money allowed HEI to work Virginia Portillo until she couldn’t raise her right arm above her shoulder. Your money allowed HEI to bully Jose Landino until he had his second stroke. Your money allowed HEI to double Maria Patlan’s workload and to cause her three significant work-related injuries. In an already grueling profession, your money pushed HEI’s mostly minority female housekeepers to the edges of their limits, punished their bodies, and exacted an incalculable mental toll. Your money bought injustice. 
 
It’s not your fault. You didn’t know where your money was going. In truth, you spent money and didn’t know what you spent it on. So did I. But Vanderbilt knew exactly what we were investing in. Vanderbilt knew that HEI could turn a profit by exploiting low-wage workers and then eliminating their jobs. Vanderbilt knew that we were acting against the values of the university, which value most highly “equality” and “compassion.” And Vanderbilt thought that you would not find out. You did. 
 
You can throw this paper away. In doing so, you will endorse the inhumane treatment of low-wage workers. Alternatively, you could stick this flyer in your backpack and show up for a meeting. Vanderbilt is investing your money without regard to your ethics. Together, we can do something about it.

Vanderbilt’s Investment Policy – Ben Wibking

Vanderbilt’s investments are managed by the Vice Chancellor for Investments, Matthew Wright, and a number of undisclosed external fund managers. In a Q&A session with students sponsored by the Vanderbilt Investment Club, Wright admitted that Vanderbilt has no codified ethical criteria for selecting investments. Wright and Chancellor Zeppos both explained that we have a diligent process for evaluating investments but would not elaborate on the exact ethical criteria. In his responses to a questionnaire for the Green Report Card, a report by the Sustainable Endowments Institute that rates the environmental policies of universities, Wright indicated that Vanderbilt does not disclose the details of its investments nor how it uses its “proxy votes,” or votes given to shareholders in decisions of corporate policy. In fact, Vanderbilt leaves these decisions, which impact consumers, workers, and the environment, entirely in the hands of investment bankers. (Green Report Card gave Vanderbilt failing grades because of these policies.) Neither the Chancellor nor the Vice Chancellor for Investments has accepted responsibility for Vanderbilt’s proxy votes, which have the potential to make a positive impact on society in accordance with Vanderbilt’s mission.

HEI and Vanderbilt, What Now? – Benjamin Eagles

We are not asking that Vanderbilt divest from HEI, for there is nothing inherently wrong with investing in a hotel company. However, there is something wrong with investing in a hotel company that harasses, intimidates, and mistreats its employees. Why should we condone unethical and illegal labor practices that we would never stand for on our own campus? We are asking that Vanderbilt withhold future investment until HEI cleans up its act. Such a step is only reasonable.

When a student cheats on an exam, he/she has violated the Honor Code. Likewise, when a university’s investment office misplaces our trust in a company such as HEI, they have violated the values of our Community Creed. How can we claim to practice values of “accountability” and “caring” if we fail to take responsibility for the plight of our indirect employees?  Regardless of how seemingly profitable academic dishonesty or morally bankrupt investing might be, our community cannot allow either.

Our standing as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” means very little if we throw millions of dollars to companies that would not even sniff the top 10,000. Sure, we can outsource the responsibility to our “managers and ‘manage managers’” and hide behind the assertion that we “do not manage or invest money directly” (Letter from Chancellor Zeppos, 12/10/09), but we cannot escape the crippling effects our money has on the lives of others. In the end, this is your money and your university. Whether you are a student on a full scholarship, a law student paying tuition, or an alum giving back, Vanderbilt’s investments reflect you. It’s your university, what do you think? 

February 2010

Taxi Driver Newsletter

VSN's full Newsletter on Taxi Driver Movement:

 Front (click to enlarge)

Back (click to enlarge)

Download the PDF
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Taxi Driver Movement Update

by Braden C.

Taxi drivers in Nashville are some of the lowest paid workers in the entire country. After accounting for all of their expenses, their hourly wage comes out to $2.40/ hour, barely one-third of the federal minimum wage of $6.55/hour. This is possible due to an exploitative system in which drivers are technically not employees of the taxi companies, but are classified as "independent contractors." Because of this loophole, the taxi companies are not required to assume many of the risks inherent to the taxi industry, such as liability if a driver is injured in an accident. While the taxi companies cover the passengers, the drivers are personally responsible for their own health insurance, providing and maintaining their own vehicle, and car insurance. Each cab driver must pay their company a $175 weekly fee for a city-issued permit that includes a Utah-based dispatch service (which drivers are responsible for maintaining) and the right to put the company name on their vehicle. This same permit costs the cab company $235 annually.

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Did you know?

The average driver's workday is over 13 hours, earning a gross income of only $105.77 (this includes tips)

If a driver works 365 days each year and an average of 13 hours a day, his or her total income would still be less than $12,000

75% of drivers do not have health insurance, and only 32% of drivers' families are covered

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These statistics are not simply the inevitable result of the free-market; they are the result of a grossly unfair government-supported system in which drivers are forced to bear all of the risk inherent in the industry, while the taxi companies make a guaranteed profit off of a city-issued license. The Vanderbilt community can no longer ignore this economic injustice. 

Why should I care?

by Lauren M.

So, taxi drivers in the city of Nashville make on average $2.40 an hour.  That's horrible, but how is that really your problem?  The taxi service in Nashville is absolutely essential to the infrastructure of the city.  If this system of transportation were not in existence, can you imagine what our city would be like?  A major metropolitan area like Nashville, with an airport and large businesses and quite a few colleges, would absolutely fall apart without the taxi service.  Besides that, imagine your own life for a moment without the taxi service.  Think about how hard it would be to escape the Vandy-bubble if you couldn't call a taxi.  It certainly seems safe to say that taxi drivers provide an essential service in Nashville.  Surely we all agree that they ought to be paid accordingly.  And if they aren't being paid accordingly, then something ought to be done about it, right?  Of course!

But why should you personally step up and take action?  Because it is our responsibility as citizens of this world to take action when we see that an injustice has occurred.  When we live in America, a country where we are guaranteed "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," it is important that every threat we see to these basic rights be acted upon.  When we see that someone else's rights are being taken away, we have a responsibility to help them if we are to be deserving of the rights that we have. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in jail in Birmingham, he wrote that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."  The suffering of another human being, whether they are halfway around the world or sitting in a taxi right outside our dorm, has a very real impact on society as a whole. We must therefore step up to right the wrong.

What does VSN stand for?

In a year when it is fashionable to belittle the importance of community organizations, Vanderbilt Students of Nonviolence is determined to prove the contrary. We are organizing students to resist injustice by utilizing the tactics and philosophy of ahimsa, or nonviolence. Far from being just another leftist-letter writing campaign, VSN is committed to building a sustained activist infrastructure here in Nashville. Our focus is local, as we feel that change must begin at home.

In keeping with that vision, VSN spends much of its energy organizing our community. That means developing leadership among the student body. That means networking and building relationships with power brokers in Nashville. That means strategizing campaigns with the same dedication and discipline that underwrote successful social movements in our nation’s past.

VSN understands the impact that college youth can have. Our access to resources and the hopeful attitude that characterizes our demographic is potential energy waiting to be expended in cause of social justice. Our mission is to utilize that energy by reversing the culture of apathy many associate with Vanderbilt. We have met far too many good hearted individuals that have used that excuse as a reason for their own inaction. The only way to change the culture of the community is to first change yourself.

This is not a pipe dream. Every year, Vanderbilt students demonstrate their commitment to the betterment of their community, by donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity. Our philanthropy is a testament to our willingness to devote time and money to those in need. VSN hopes to make use of this good will, not through philanthropy, but through the support of social justice reform. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

Far from a radical concept, nonviolent reform has a history at Vanderbilt. Juniors and Seniors will remember the Living Wage movement in 2006. A group of activist students organized to pressure the Vanderbilt administration to come to the table and drastically raise the wages for Vanderbilt’s employees. This campaign succeeded in educating and energizing the student body, proving that we do have the environment necessary to sustain a social justice campaign. Although the living wage movement did not achieve an inflation-anchored living wage for Vanderbilt workers, they did help build an infrastructure necessary to continue the struggle for justice in Nashville. VSN has teamed up with the Living Wage group to advance the cause of fair wages for Vanderbilt workers.

Our main focus right now is supporting Nashville’s Taxi Drivers, who are also organizing for higher wages. We intend to raise the consciousness of fellow students to the plight of the drivers whose services we often depend on. Hopefully, education will lead to action, and the Vanderbilt community will prove their capacity to come together in the cause of social justice.