In his Feb. 22 column (“Twisting Wal-Mart’s virtues in vices”), Noah Stahl expresses his affection for the Wal-Mart corporation, including its abysmal policies toward women and minorities and its utterly anti-union behavior.

Although Mr. Stahl may be able to justify these actions as fair game in the free market, there are those of us who aren’t so willing to accept discrimination based on such a weak justification.

A group of ISU students and Ames residents would like to see Iowa State change the way it invests money, shifting investments away from companies that have poor human rights and environmental records like Exxon Mobile, Citigroup and Wal-Mart. By doing this, Iowa State will be “voting with its dollars” and voicing its objections to these kinds of discriminatory policies.

Iowa State’s Non-discrimination and Affirmative Action Policy makes it clear that the university is committed to ending discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion and sexual orientation.

It states: “Iowa State University’s commitment to nondiscrimination and affirmative action is of the highest priority and is to be adhered to as such. It applies to all university-sponsored programs and activities as well as those that are conducted in cooperation with the university.” We feel that it is time for Iowa State to apply this policy to its investments, which could be a very powerful tool for promoting the concept of inclusion and equality.

We are planning to propose to the university that it reinvest 1 percent of the money it has invested in mutual funds into socially responsible funds. This will be the start of a, hopefully, large change in the way Iowa State invests.

It is important to note that this will not be a high-risk move, and that our money will still be able to earn a competitive rate of return while at the same time promoting the values that are important to the university.

For more information on the Divestment Campaign, including information on how you can help out, you can visit: http://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/solidarity/labor/divestment/.

Noah Wiese

Junior

Materials Engineering