Update on US universities and Israel divestment negotiations with protesting students
- Columbia University did not agree to divest from Israel, but Union Theological Seminary, a private, ecumenical school which shares a graduate studies programme with the university, did. On May 9, its board of trustees voted to divest from all companies profiting off the war in Gaza.
- Brown University, another Ivy League school, agreed to hold a vote on divestment in October 2024, following protester meetings with the administrators. Despite the fact that students had to remove their encampment, the Brown Divest Coalition said that the journey for justice continues.
- At Northwestern, student organisers and the school agreed to curb protest activity in return for the re-establishment of an advisory committee on university investments and other commitments.
- Following a weeklong student encampment, Evergreen State College in Washington State agreed to create a task force, which will “address divestment from companies that profit from gross human rights violations and/or the occupation of Palestinian territories”.
- After a two-week student and faculty encampment, San Francisco Student University committed to improve its public disclosure of its investments and said it would add “a human rights-based investment strategy, including divesting from direct investments in weapons manufacturers and limiting other such indirect investments”.
- Wesleyan University agreed to a process to divest from certain industries related to the military-industrial complex and/or the conflict in Palestine-Israel, in response to a three-week student encampment.
UCLA police chief reassigned after pro-Palestine encampment violence
School administrators cited security shortcomings for the action against the California public university’s police chief John Thomas, according to the Los Angeles Times. He had faced criticism after a pro-Palestine encampment on the campus was attacked by what the university described as a “group of instigators”.
It took at least three hours for police to respond to the violence at the encampment, which came as similar camps were set up in solidarity with Gaza at universities across the US.
The newspaper reported, citing three sources, that Thomas had failed to submit a written safety contingency plan for various scenarios related to the encampment.
