[Peace-discuss] the U of I, banks vs. credit unions, and Occupy Wall Street

[Jenifer Cartwright]

Dare we hope?? Keep us posted as you learn more. --Jenifer

--- On Wed, 12/7/11, Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com>
Subject: [Peace-discuss] the U of I, banks vs. credit unions, and Occupy Wall Street
To: "Peace-discuss List" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Date: Wednesday, December 7, 2011, 10:32 AM


The U of I Alumni Association has recently informed me that whereas in the past, I could have had a University of Illinois-branded credit card through Bank of America, now I can only do this through the U of I Employees Credit Union (see below.)

I thought this was interesting because, as I'm sure many of you are aware, there has been some buzz around a national push, loosely associated with Occupy Wall Street, to get people to take their money out of banks and put it in credit unions. 


So that made me curious about what went into the U of I decision, and whether it was "political" at all, in a good way; and whether that could be built upon to do other things.
Could the University of Illinois - and other universities - "divest" from Wall Street banks, as a matter of policy?

Probably an outright ban on economic relations would be very hard to implement.
But there are other ways to do it. When the Commonwealth of Massachusetts adopted a policy against doing business with companies that were involved in apartheid South Africa, they didn't do so by means of an outright ban. They did it through a bid preference. If you were a company that *didn't* do business in South Africa, you got a 2% bid preference in securing contracts. That way, if there was no plausible alternative to a bad company, Massachusetts could do business with the company. This dodges arguments that adopting the policy is going to incur huge costs. It also says you're going to implement the policy going forward; you don't have to cancel existing contracts.

Note that when Governor Quinn was State Treasurer, he adopted a policy that the State of Illinois is only going to hold its money in banks that invest in the local community. So, relative to our immediate political context, the idea that public institutions should take responsibility for the actions of banks where their money is held is not "radical."

What do you think? 


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: UI Alumni Association Member Services <uiaambrsvcs at xmr3.com>

Date: Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 2:20 PM
Subject: Program Termination
To: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com


  
 
 
  
 
  
On December 31, 2009, the MasterCard and American Express affinity and sponsorship agreements among the University of Illinois Alumni Association and the University of Illinois and Bank of America expired without renewal. Under the terms of the agreements, Bank of America was permitted to continue to use licensed University images, logos and marks on existing cards until their expiration dates. The University of Illinois Alumni Association continues to earn royalties on these cards through December 31, 2011. Bank of America may reissue cards without University of Illinois logos and marks to its customers; however, after December 31, 2011, these cards will no longer financially benefit the Alumni Association in any way.
 
  
You may continue to use any of these cards, other cards with University of Illinois, UIC or UIS images, logos and marks or generic replacement cards issued by Bank of America under the terms of your cardholder agreement with Bank of America. The University of Illinois Alumni Association and the University of Illinois do not endorse, sponsor or derive any financial benefit from their use.
 


  
  
 
  
  
To apply for the new, official Visa card of the University of Illinois issued by the University of Illinois Employees Credit Union, go to www.illinoiscards.org.
 
  
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-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org

naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

Urge Congress to Support a Timetable for Military Withdrawal from Afghanistan
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern


 



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