Editor's Note: This article has been updated for the August 25 print edition of The Justice.

The University will review reports from its technology providers on their use of conflict minerals under a new policy that was released to the public on Thursday, May 21 by the Enough Project, a nongovernmental organization. Brandeis is the 19th school worldwide to join the Enough Project’s Conflict Free Campus Initiative, a project that asks universities to avoid purchasing electronics from companies that use conflict minerals.

Conflict minerals include gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten. They are used in many consumer electronics including cell phones and laptops. They are considered “conflict” minerals when they are mined in a conflict-ridden area, most notably the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and are shipped or smuggled out of the country by militia groups who use the money to fund ongoing civil conflicts. According to the Enough Project, the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most deadly conflict since World War II and the area has the highest rates of sexual violence on earth.

The University’s policy is aimed at “certifying the transparency of mineral supply chains from conflict zones” rather than boycotting conflict minerals entirely according to the University’s policy, because boycotts “may not always be feasible, and since boycotting can have adverse secondary effects, such as reducing employment for those living in conflict zones and encouraging smuggling,” according to the policy. It is published on the Enough Project’s website.

Under the Dodd-Frank Act, a 2010 financial reform law, publicly traded technology companies are required to audit their supply chains for conflict minerals. The University’s policy will mainly involve reviewing the reports put out by companies in compliance with this act. Companies which do not distribute reports on their use of conflict minerals will be asked by Director of Strategic Procurement John Storti to work with assurance services groups, such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, to come into compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act.

Former University President Frederick Lawrence approved the policy on May 14, according to a May 19 Justice article. STAND and the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative, two student groups, first approached Procurement services to find out if the University had a policy opposing conflict minerals in Spring 2014, according to a Nov. 11 Justice article. They pitched a potential policy to Vice Provost, Chief Information Officer and University Librarian John Unsworth that October. That policy included requests that the University phase out the use of conflict mineral-containing electronics over time.

Unsworth called the policy “practical” in the Nov. 11 article but also voiced concerns about asking small vendors to remove their conflict materials, purchasing more expensive products to avoid conflict minerals and vagueness as to whether the policy applied to cloud services whose servers the University may not own. According to a Jan. 13 Justice article, STAND and CFCI spoke to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee on Dec. 3, 2014, which resulted in changes to the proposal. Gina Gkoulgkountina ’14, the northeast campus organizer for the Enough Project, told the Justice in January that the new policy was “mostly about educating people ... and to start phasing out ... products from irresponsible places.” She added that the policy was “not saying ‘throw out all the old electronics and focus on conflict-free,’ because that would be really hard and devastating for the economy here and in the Congo.”

According to comments from then Provost Lisa Lynch in an article by the Enough Project, the committee which approved the University’s new policy voted for it unanimously. In an email to the Justice, Lynch explained that the committee was made up of herself; Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel; Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Manos; Senior Vice President for Finance and Treasurer Marianne Cwalina and Senior Vice President, Chief of Staff and Chief Legal Officer David Bunis.

In an email to the Justice, Annie Callaway, the senior advocacy associate at the Enough Project, called the Brandeis policy “one of the strongest of the 19 that have passed worldwide, because it includes a mechanism for communicating directly with companies to inquire about their conflict-free sourcing practices (or lack thereof.)” She said that the Enough Project “provided input and guidance on how to create an effective policy” but that it will not be involved with developing any new infrastructures as a result of the policy. She added that she has “complete faith that the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative team at Brandeis is committed to finding workable and durable methods for fully upholding the conflict-free policy.”

Gkoulgkountina told the Enough Project that “after 3 years working to pass a conflict-free procurement resolution, I am proud to see Brandeis joining the growing community of schools actively supporting peace in Congo.”

Many of the technology companies from which the University currently purchases were among the best-ranked companies in the Enough Project’s Company Rankings on Conflict Minerals in 2012, the most recent year in which the group conducted this study. Intel committed to developing conflict-free microprocessors in 2014 and hopes to have its entire supply chain conflict-free by 2016, according to a Sept. 3 2014 Fast Company article. 135 of Apple’s 225 smelting plants were audited last year to verify that they do not use conflict minerals, according to a Feb. 11 Wall Street Journal article.