A 39-page memo obtained by The Herald outlines how a group of students plans to argue later today against divestment from companies with ties to the Israeli military.
Between five and six students will appear before the Advisory Committee on University Resources Management, or ACURM, at 5 p.m. for their presentation. The committee will issue a recommendation to Brown on divestment by Sept. 30.
To recommend divestment, ACURM must determine either that divestment would reduce social harm, or that a Brown investment contributes to a “social harm so grave that it would be inconsistent with the goals and principles of the University,” per the committee’s charge.
Last week, pro-divestment students with the Brown Divest Coalition argued before ACURM that Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza constituted social harm.
In the memo, titled “The Case Against Divestment,” anti-divestment students argue that Israel’s actions do not meet ACURM’s criteria for social harm and that the government’s actions constitute “legitimate national security and self-defense decisions.” The document was shared with The Herald by a source unaffiliated with the presentation.
It also rebuts other assertions made in the pro-divestment proposal that student activists used as the basis for their own presentation, including arguments that Israel is an apartheid state committing a genocide in the ongoing war in Gaza.
Divestment remains a hotly contested issue on campus. While a divestment resolution is popular among students, it has deterred some top donors and led a Corporation member to publicly announce his resignation yesterday.
Brooke Verschleiser ’25, one of the students who will be presenting to ACURM today, said the memo is intended to speak on behalf of Brown students who oppose divestment.
“We don’t feel it’s as black-and-white a picture as people like to paint it to be,” Verschleiser said.
Verschleiser said that she and her peers will use the memo as a basis for their presentation.
The memo further argues that the pro-divestment report fails to address what it describes as “highly nuanced issues” regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. Verschleiser said this argument will be a focal point of their presentation to ACURM.
By divesting, the Corporation would be “making a unilateral decision for a university on a very complex issue, where many intellectual people disagree,” she argued.
Some, but not all, students who authored the memo are affiliated with the advocacy group Brown Students for Israel. The memo is not formally sponsored by any campus organizations.
“We by no means are against divestment because suffering isn’t happening,” Verschleiser said. “We’re against divestment because we do not believe it’s within the responsibility of ACURM or the Corporation, and we don’t believe (divestment would be) alleviating any of that suffering.”
Beyond the question of social harm, the anti-divestment memo argues that divestment would produce a hostile educational environment that does not welcome debate and instead promotes “simplistic and reductive thinking.”
The memo also contends that divestment would be “functionally antisemitic” by holding Israel to a standard not applied to other countries, ultimately making “Brown a less welcoming place for Jewish students.”
The anti-divestment memo warns of potential financial and legal implications Brown could face if it divested from companies doing business with Israel. BDC’s pro-divestment proposal identified 10 companies which they claim “facilitate the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory,” including Textron, Volvo and Motorola Solutions.
Last month, 24 Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to the University urging it to reject the divestment proposal and warning that divestment could trigger anti-boycott laws that would prohibit their states and others from doing business with Brown.
Sophia Wotman is a Senior Staff Writer covering the Affinity & Activism beat under University News. She is a junior from Long Island, New York concentrating in Political Science with a focus on women’s rights. She is a jazz trumpet player, and you’ll often find her performing on campus and around Providence.
