Brown Won't Make New Investments in HEI Hotels and Resorts

Brown University will stop all future investment in HEI Hotels and Resorts, a real estate company under scrutiny for its treatment of workers. Any current investments held by Brown will not be affected "since they may be difficult or impossible to divest from due to long-term commitments," according to Luiz F. Valente, chair of Brown's Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies, which recommended the investment review. Critics have said that HEI interferes with union organizing and other worker rights. “After conferring with the Investment Committee of the Corporation, the university's governing body, the university has accepted ACCRIP's recommendation,” wrote Sarah Kidwell, Brown’s director of news and communications, in a statement via e-mail. The Brown Student Labor Alliance had lobbied for years for this result, said Lenora Knowles, a member of the alliance, and who said that "this is a big accomplishment" that assures "our university is using this money in a way that is not compromising the values of students.” HEI declined to comment on Brown's move, but has in the past disputed criticisms of its labor practices.