On Jan. 9, the Rhode Island School of Design’s Board of Trustees voted to reject a student divestment proposal targeting the school’s relationship with companies affiliated with Israel.
The decision comes after a three-day building occupation and a monthslong campaign by pro-Palestinian student activists that demanded disclosure of RISD’s investments, divestment from groups “sustaining Israel Apartheid,” establishment of a student investment oversight committee and the public condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
In October, five representatives of RISD Students for Justice in Palestine met with RISD President Crystal Williams and several members of the Board of Trustees Investment Committee to discuss a divestment proposal. During the meeting RISD stated that the board would come to a consensus and “share their thoughts” on the proposal by early March, according to RSJP Spokesperson Jo Ouyang ’26, a Brown-RISD dual degree student.
On Jan. 15, RISD community members received an email announcing the board’s decision to reject the proposal, Ouyang said in an interview with The Herald.
“It truly just came across as like a slap in the face,” they said, adding that RISD informed RSJP organizers of the decision around 10 minutes before the rest of the RISD community.
Ouyang claimed that the email was RISD’s way of “absolving themselves from their complicity in the genocide in Palestine,” emphasizing that the email was “conveniently” sent shortly after Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire deal, they said.
RISD Spokesperson Jaime Marland did not provide additional comment regarding the decision, referring The Herald to the campus-wide email announcement.
After the October meeting, RISD’s board said they used the recommendations of the Stewardship & Sustainability Committee and its Investment Subcommittee, and determined “the RSJP proposal did not meet the criteria of RISD’s Statement on Divestment,” according to the email.
Students’ inputs and recommendations “were reviewed with care and consideration” the board wrote in the email. Their decision was in an effort to “secure and strengthen the core of RISD’s mission now and for future generations,” the email read.
RISD’s Statement on Divestment, which was adopted in 2015, states that the Board of Trustees may “take political and social considerations into account” when a proposed investment or divestment demonstrates “an issue of importance to RISD as an institution and to its constituents as a whole, and not solely to a segment of its constituents.”
Ouyang criticized the board’s message to the campus community, noting that the announcement did not detail the board’s justification for their decision beyond stating that the proposal did not meet RISD’s criteria for divestment.
Since October, no students or RSJP members have had any input in divestment, Ouyang said. They added that RSJP was given “very limited details” about the divestment consideration process following their October meeting with RISD administrators.
In a statement posted to Instagram, RSJP claimed that RISD as an “institution” has “made it clear that they have never intended to engage with us in good faith.”
RISD did not provide additional comment on these claims.
Ouyang said RSJP does not yet have any events or demonstrations planned in response to the board’s divestment decision.
Sanai Rashid lives in Long Island, New York. As an English and Economics concentrator, she is passionate about storytelling and how numbers and data create narratives in ways words alone cannot. When she is not writing, you can find her trying new pizza places in Providence or buying another whale stuffed animal.
