Columbia University has become the first college in the United States to divest from private prison companies, following a student activist campaign.
The decision means the Ivy League school -- with boasts a roughly $9 billion endowment -- will sell its estimated 220,000 shares in G4S, the world's largest private security firm, as well its shares in the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the United states.
The campaign began in early 2014 when a small group of Columbia students discovered the school was investing in the two firms, which run prisons, detention centers, and militarized borders.