Brown University has rejected student protestors’ demands that it divest from companies with ties to the Israeli military, the first such decision by an Ivy League institution since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the country’s war in Gaza.
Brown on Wednesday announced that it voted against withdrawing investments from 10 companies described in a divestment proposal by the student-led Brown Divest Coalition (BDC) as “facilitating the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territory.”
In April, the university had agreed to consider student demonstrators’ demands in exchange for dozens of pro-Palestinian college students disbanding an encampment they had formed on Brown’s Providence, Rhode Island, campus.
The Corporation of Brown University, the university’s governing body, on Tuesday voted 8-2 in favor of a recommendation on the matter from its Advisory Committee on University Resources Management (ACURM) against divestment.
In a letter to the Brown Community, Brian T. Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America and chancellor of the Brown Corporation, and Brown University President Christina H. Paxson, wrote that after carefully considering ACURM’s findings on a range of issues, “the Corporation is stating its clear position opposing divestment, and accordingly, the University will not divest.”
Not “responsible for social harm”
Brown is not directly invested in any of the companies listed for divestment, and its indirect exposure to them “is so small that it could not be directly responsible for social harm,” the letter stated. The companies include: Airbus, Boeing, General Dynamics, General Electric, Motorola Solutions, Northrop Grumman, RTX Corporation, Textron, Safariland and Volvo Group.
Given that “Brown’s exposure to the 10 companies identified in the divestment proposal is de minimis,” Paxson and Moynihan wrote in the letter, “it could not be directly responsible for social harm.”
The letter added that for Brown to take a stand on a geopolitical issue through divestment would be inconsistent with the university’s mission, which “doesn’t encompass resolving or adjudicating global conflict… .”
In a statement on Instagram, BDC called the decision “an act of cowardice and an endorsement of genocide.”
Universities across the nation have come under pressure by students condemning what they see as their universities’ financial support for Israel’s actions in Gaza, with most dismissing student-led calls to exit such investments. And whether or not divestment is even effective remains up for debate, according to experts.
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