Brown University will not divest from companies with Israeli military ties, its governing body voted Tuesday.
The decision, announced publicly Wednesday, follows a recommendation against divestment issued by Brown’s Advisory Committee on University Resource Management, or ACURM. The committee voted 8-2 against recommending divestment, with one member abstaining.
Brown was one of few schools to consider divestment in an official capacity. It did so in exchange for an agreement by student protesters to dismantle a week-long encampment on the Main Green. The decision drew mixed reactions, and prompted a warning from 24 Republican state attorneys general and the resignation of a trustee on the Corporation.
The ACURM recommendation “played a central role in the Corporation’s deliberations,” Chancellor Brian Moynihan ’81 P’14 P’19 and President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 wrote in an email to the University community. The committee, which was tasked in part with assessing the extent to which Brown’s current investments contribute to social harm, reported that Brown’s indirect investments in the 10 companies constitute 0.009% of their market value.
The University is not directly invested in weapons manufacturers or any of the 10 companies implicated in the divestment proposal.
“Any indirect exposure for Brown in these companies is so small that it could not be directly responsible for social harm,” the letter stated. “These findings alone are sufficient reason to support ACURM’s recommendation.”
The companies identified within the proposal included several weapons manufacturers with connections to the Israeli military, including Boeing, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman.
“The escalating loss of life and violence in the region is, for many, deeply personal and reflects the lived experiences of Brunonians,” Moynihan and Paxson wrote in the letter. But addressing conflicts around the world, they said, does not fall within the scope of Brown’s mission to advance knowledge and educate its students, and divestment “would signal to our students and scholars that there are ‘approved’ points of view to which members of the community are expected to conform.”
Protests by pro-divestment student organizations, two of which led to arrests in November and December, have called for Brown’s Corporation to formally consider divestment.
In February, 19 students participated in an indefinite hunger strike in which they called on the Corporation to consider divestment. The strike ended when the Corporation did not consider a divestment proposal in its February meetings.
Protests came to a head in April, when 80 students began an indefinite encampment on the Main Green in support of divestment. After meeting with University administrators on the seventh day, organizers agreed to clear the encampment in exchange for the Corporation vote this month.
Charlie Clynes is the managing editor of digital content on The Herald's 134th Editorial Board. Previously, he covered University Hall and the Graduate Labor Organization as a University News editor.
Aniyah Nelson is a University News editor overseeing the undergraduate student life beat. She is a senior from Cleveland, Ohio concentrating in Political Science and Sociology. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music and watching bloopers from The Office.
