A Brown advisory committee’s recommendation on divestment from 10 companies with ties to Israel will remain confidential until after the Corporation votes on the matter later this month.
In a Tuesday email, President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 confirmed that the Advisory Committee on University Resources Management, known as ACURM, had submitted its divestment report to her by the Sept. 30 deadline.
University officials say the report is being kept confidential to prevent the spread of misinformation about the Corporation vote and to reduce the risk of threats and hostile rhetoric directed toward ACURM’s members.
“We know that many members of the Brown community have a strong interest in the content of ACURM’s report,” Paxson wrote. “Consistent with past practice, the report will be shared later this month at the same time that the Corporation’s decision on divestment is announced.”
ACURM’s recommendation comes after public presentations from students in support of and against divestment last month. The committee also held two opening listening sessions for community members to ask questions and share input on the process.
Pro-divestment students are ramping up protests pressuring Brown to divest from the 10 companies with ties to Israel. On Monday, 150 students rallied outside Faunce Arch and called on ACURM to recommend divestment.
Paxson will now submit the recommendation to the Corporation, whose members will review the report and materials created by students for and against divestment. They will then vote in late October on whether to accept ACURM’s recommendation.
ACURM’s 11 voting members were tasked with determining if divestment would help correct a social harm issue or if Brown’s investment in one of the 10 companies 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.
The latest push for divestment began after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. Pro-divestment activists staged two sit-ins, as well as a hunger strike and an encampment, to pressure the University to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
In an agreement reached with protestors to end their encampment last spring, Paxson committed to bringing a divestment resolution to the Corporation. She also instructed ACURM members to provide her with “their recommendations and advice” on the protestors’ divestment proposal by Sept. 30.
The divestment proposal under ACURM’s consideration, written by the student-run Brown Divest Coalition, is a revised version of a 2020 report from ACURM’s predecessor that recommended Brown’s divestment from “companies that facilitate the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.”
At the time, Paxson declined to bring this recommendation to the Corporation, writing in a letter that the report “did not adequately address the requirements for rigorous analysis and research” outlined in the committee’s charge.
This time, however, Paxson has committed to bringing a divestment resolution to the Corporation regardless of the outcome of ACURM’s recommendation.
Sam Levine is a University News editor from Brooklyn, New York covering on-campus activism. He is a senior concentrating in International and Public Affairs.
