Princeton Drops Investments in Controversial Hotel Firm

The manager of Princeton University’s investments said Wednesday that the school will cease putting money into hotelier HEI, capping a three-year campaign by labor and human-rights groups who contend the company mistreats its workers, according to The Daily Princetonian and The Harvard Crimson.

The Princeton decision follows similar moves by Yale, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, and other universities, and Harvard is reviewing its association with HEI. Nearly all of the company’s funding comes from university investments, according to hospitality workers’ union Unite Here, which has led the divestment effort.

The union and other activists claim HEI routinely engages in exploitative wage and hour practices at its hotels. The firm has denied the allegations, and Andrew Golden, president of the Princeton University Investment Company, said the protests did not drive the university’s action.

Princeton’s decision was “based purely on business reasons, and it would be absolutely wrong to infer that [the university investment company] had concluded that HEI was out of compliance with regulations or industry standards,” Mr. Golden said.