Protesters Want to Influence College Investment Policy
2024-05-05
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1Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City; the University of California, Berkeley; Brown University in Rhode Island and others are calling on their leaders to divest from Israel.
2That means the students want their universities to sell any investments in Israeli businesses.
3Students have also started to ask their universities to divest from any U.S. company that does business in Israel.
4That includes companies that produce weapons and aircraft that can be used in war, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
5In addition, some protesters say schools should end investments in technology companies such as Google and Airbnb that do business in Israel.
6For weeks, protesters have been calling for the war between Hamas and Israel to end.
7The war started in 2023 after Hamas fighters invaded Israel and killed about 1200 people and took hostages.
8Israel's military fight against Hamas has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, Hamas' health ministry said.
9Protesters began calling for divestment from Israel in the months following the start of the war.
10At Columbia, a group calling itself Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) published demands.
11CUAD has demanded that the university: "Divest all of Columbia's finances, including the endowment, from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine. Ensure accountability by increasing transparency around financial investments."
12An endowment is a special organization that invests money for the school that creates it.
13The people who work for it have a legal responsibility to invest the money wisely.
14The gains are supposed to pay for improvements to the school grounds, new buildings and to provide financial aid for students.
15Some universities are agreeing to consider changing the way they invest money in their endowments. Others are not.
16On April 30 at Brown, leaders said they would discuss and vote on selling investments related to Israel's fighting in Gaza if the protesters left their encampment.
17The protesters agreed.
18One student group at Brown, the Brown Divest Coalition, posted a message on Instagram celebrating the deal:
19"This would not have been possible without the hard work of university encampments across the country whose collective power has forced university administrators to acknowledge the overwhelming support for Palestine..."
20At the University of California, Berkeley, the BDS Coalition demanded: "The total divestment of the UC Berkeley Foundation and the UC General Endowment Pool from the Israeli state and from all companies profiting from the colonization of Palestine."
21But on April 26, the University of California said it would not change its investments.
22A statement said: "The University of California has consistently opposed calls for boycott against and divestment from Israel..."
23At Columbia, the place that many see as the starting point of the protests that spread across the U.S., the university offered to talk with protesters.
24Columbia said it would publish a list of the school's direct investments and increase how often the list is updated.
25The school's investing committee said it would consider proposals from students.
26Students involved in recent protests point to similar calls for divestment from South Africa that started in the 1980s.
27At the time, South Africa was a segregated country living under what was known as apartheid.
28Civil rights activists point to economic pressure around the world, some of which came from universities, as a main reason for the end of the policy in the 1990s.
29But some business and education experts note that university endowments are more sophisticated than they were back then.
30The Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics reported that the combined market value of the 20 largest U.S. university endowments totaled more than $927 billion at the end of 2021.
31Much of the money in endowments is overseen by financial professionals who have permission to buy and sell stocks or groups of stocks.
32Because of this, it can be difficult to identify a school's involvement with a company. Georges Dyer is executive director and cofounder of the Intentional Endowments Network.
33"It's not as simple as some people think - maybe it's just selling some stocks at a certain company," Dyer said.
34Financial experts also note that a small number of universities removing their investments in a few large companies such as Boeing or Microsoft will not make much difference.
35Todd Ely is an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado, Denver.
36He said some schools likely have employed financial companies to supervise their investments and "colleges and universities have fairly limited discretion in the actual...investments."
37Dany Bahar and Natan Sachs of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. have done research on divestment.
38They noted that divestment movements have had little effect on the Israeli economy.
39In their writing, they note that only official restrictions, or sanctions, by the United States, would produce economic pressure to change Israeli policy.
40But that is not likely to happen because of U.S. support for Israel.
41Just on Thursday, President Joe Biden talked about his support for the protesters' right to express themselves, but said the U.S. does not plan to end its support for Israel's fight against Hamas.
42I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Dan Friedell.
1Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City; the University of California, Berkeley; Brown University in Rhode Island and others are calling on their leaders to divest from Israel. 2That means the students want their universities to sell any investments in Israeli businesses. Students have also started to ask their universities to divest from any U.S. company that does business in Israel. That includes companies that produce weapons and aircraft that can be used in war, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. In addition, some protesters say schools should end investments in technology companies such as Google and Airbnb that do business in Israel. 3For weeks, protesters have been calling for the war between Hamas and Israel to end. The war started in 2023 after Hamas fighters invaded Israel and killed about 1200 people and took hostages. Israel's military fight against Hamas has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, Hamas' health ministry said. 4Protesters began calling for divestment from Israel in the months following the start of the war. At Columbia, a group calling itself Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) published demands. CUAD has demanded that the university: "Divest all of Columbia's finances, including the endowment, from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine. Ensure accountability by increasing transparency around financial investments." 5An endowment is a special organization that invests money for the school that creates it. The people who work for it have a legal responsibility to invest the money wisely. The gains are supposed to pay for improvements to the school grounds, new buildings and to provide financial aid for students. 6Effects of recent divestment calls 7Some universities are agreeing to consider changing the way they invest money in their endowments. Others are not. 8On April 30 at Brown, leaders said they would discuss and vote on selling investments related to Israel's fighting in Gaza if the protesters left their encampment. The protesters agreed. 9One student group at Brown, the Brown Divest Coalition, posted a message on Instagram celebrating the deal: 10"This would not have been possible without the hard work of university encampments across the country whose collective power has forced university administrators to acknowledge the overwhelming support for Palestine..." 11At the University of California, Berkeley, the BDS Coalition demanded: "The total divestment of the UC Berkeley Foundation and the UC General Endowment Pool from the Israeli state and from all companies profiting from the colonization of Palestine." 12But on April 26, the University of California said it would not change its investments. A statement said: "The University of California has consistently opposed calls for boycott against and divestment from Israel..." 13At Columbia, the place that many see as the starting point of the protests that spread across the U.S., the university offered to talk with protesters. Columbia said it would publish a list of the school's direct investments and increase how often the list is updated. The school's investing committee said it would consider proposals from students. 14Past success from divestment 15Students involved in recent protests point to similar calls for divestment from South Africa that started in the 1980s. At the time, South Africa was a segregated country living under what was known as apartheid. Civil rights activists point to economic pressure around the world, some of which came from universities, as a main reason for the end of the policy in the 1990s. 16But some business and education experts note that university endowments are more sophisticated than they were back then. 17The Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics reported that the combined market value of the 20 largest U.S. university endowments totaled more than $927 billion at the end of 2021. 18Is divestment possible? 19Much of the money in endowments is overseen by financial professionals who have permission to buy and sell stocks or groups of stocks. 20Because of this, it can be difficult to identify a school's involvement with a company. Georges Dyer is executive director and cofounder of the Intentional Endowments Network. 21"It's not as simple as some people think - maybe it's just selling some stocks at a certain company," Dyer said. 22Financial experts also note that a small number of universities removing their investments in a few large companies such as Boeing or Microsoft will not make much difference. 23Todd Ely is an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado, Denver. He said some schools likely have employed financial companies to supervise their investments and "colleges and universities have fairly limited discretion in the actual...investments." 24Will calls for divestment end the war? 25Dany Bahar and Natan Sachs of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. have done research on divestment. They noted that divestment movements have had little effect on the Israeli economy. 26In their writing, they note that only official restrictions, or sanctions, by the United States, would produce economic pressure to change Israeli policy. But that is not likely to happen because of U.S. support for Israel. 27Just on Thursday, President Joe Biden talked about his support for the protesters' right to express themselves, but said the U.S. does not plan to end its support for Israel's fight against Hamas. 28I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Dan Friedell. 29VOA's Rob Garver wrote this story. Dan Friedell adapted it for Learning English and included material from the Associated Press. 30______________________________________________ 31Words in This Story 32divest -v. to sell things of value for a reason 33endowment -n. a legal structure designed to supervise and grow things of value for the gain of the group or organization that organized it or for a cause 34apartheid -n. a system of keeping one group of people separate from another 35transparency -n. the idea that things should be open and clear to everyone 36consistently -adv. to take place most of the time, regularly 37sophisticated -adj. complex and involving much specialized knowledge 38discretion -n. the ability to choose some course of action rather than have it decided by a rule or requirement that already exists 39We want to hear from you. Do you think the pressure from protesters will change the way colleges and universities invest their money?