Yale trustee meets with anti-Israel protesters, refuses to cave to demands
Three members of the Sumud Coalition formed a proposal that would require Yale to disclose information regarding the school’s investments.
In 2021, Yale rolled back its investments in fossil fuel companies.
A member of Yale’s board of trustees, known as the Yale Corporation, recently met with three anti-Israel protesters to discuss a proposal that would require the university to disclose any financial connections between its endowment and businesses potentially connected to arms manufacturing in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
The three students represented different organizations that are part of the Sumud Coalition, a joint project of several student groups at Yale that collectively constitute a “coalition of students at Yale united for divestment and the liberation of Palestine,” according to the Yale Daily News.
A Yale spokesperson stated that the school agreed to hold the meeting as part of Yale’s efforts to maintain an active relationship between student activists and the board of trustees.
“Trustees often meet with students as part of their regular meetings and visits to campus. In that spirit, one trustee agreed to meet with some leaders of EJC while in town for a Board meeting,” the spokesperson said. “It was agreed it would be a private meeting.”
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The Sumud Coalition’s proposal would require Yale to disclose a “precise estimate” of the proportion of Yale’s endowment that is invested in military manufacturing companies as well as the methodologies used for producing this estimate.
Members of the Coalition told Yale Daily News that the Yale Corporation refused to agree to the proposal during the meeting.
“The Board member expressed interest in a continued dialogue, but they were unwilling to commit to a second meeting to discuss the feasibility of our proposal for disclosure,” said Naina Agrawal-Hardin, one of the Sumud Coalition representatives.
The Yale Corporation has previously altered its investments in an effort to align with left-leaning political positions. In 2021, the school estimated that roughly 2.6 percent of its endowment was invested in fossil fuel producers.
Subsequently, the school implemented a new set of “Fossil Fuel Investment Principles,” which state that “fossil fuel producers should neither explore for, produce or supply fossil fuels, nor engage in methods of extraction, that result in high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to energy supplied, if there are feasible alternatives that result in significantly lower GHG emissions.”
The principles do not make any attempt to provide an objective threshold regarding what constitutes a “high” level of emissions.
Although the Yale Corporation declined to comply with the Sumud Coalition’s demands, it aims to preserve open and regular lines of communication with students, stating on its website that “trustees are particularly interested in meeting with groups of faculty, students, and staff with whom they do not already have regularly scheduled contact or on issues that do not have well-defined methods of communication.”
Campus Reform has reached out to Yale University for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.