Afrikan Black Coalition

BNP Paribas — the parent company of UC Berkeley’s official bank, Bank of the West — owns more than $1 million in shares from two private prison companies that are contracted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to operate immigration detention facilities.

It has taken more than two years of organizing rallies, marches and demonstrations for the Black Student Union, or BSU, to obtain a five-year contract for the Hearst Field Annex space with a $30,000 annual stipend to pay for its programs.

The University of California will terminate $475 million worth of contracts with Wells Fargo after repeated criticism from the Afrikan Black Coalition, or ABC, over its ties to private correctional facilities.

While the U.S. Department of Justice has announced it will begin phasing out its contracts with private prisons, California will continue contracting private prisons to house state-level inmates.

Berkeley City Council voted July 19 to adopt a resolution calling on the city to divest from private prisons and to send a letter to the city’s business partners requesting them to do the same.

More than 115 students and community members gathered at a vigil Wednesday night on Sproul Plaza, the steps illuminated with candles in remembrance of three young men who were killed last week in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

On Feb. 15, four UC Berkeley seniors launched Wildfire, a smartphone application that posts user-generated crime PSAs.

On Monday, a universitywide group of black student organizations denounced the University of California’s investment in private corrections companies, calling for divestment and investment strategy reforms.

In the past month, dozens of colleges across the country have protested racial discrimination on campuses in a movement that is forcing higher education administrators to take another look at racial misunderstandings and reevaluate administrative diversity.