Boston University declines student-led efforts to divest from Israel
Boston University (BU) recently decided to reject student-led petitions to divest from companies that have connections to the state of Israel.
After the decision, BU President Melissa L. Gilliam stated that the university’s more than $3 billion endowment is not a 'vehicle for political debate.'
Boston University (BU) recently decided to reject student-led petitions to divest from companies that have connections to the state of Israel.
According to BU’s website, the executive committee of the university’s board of trustees considered two petitions that would have led to divestment from Israel. On Feb. 11, both petitions were rejected.
After the decision, BU President Melissa L. Gilliam stated that the university’s more than $3 billion endowment is not a “vehicle for political debate.”
“The endowment is no longer the vehicle for political debate; nevertheless, I will continue to seek ways that members of our community can engage with each other on political issues of our day, including the conflict in the Middle East, with tolerance and respect for one another,” Gillaim explained.
“Our traditions of free speech and academic freedom are critical to who we are as an institution,” Gilliam continued, “and so is our tradition of finding common ground to engage difficult topics while respecting the dignity of every individual.”
A report released last year by JLens found that boycotting Israel would cost the 100 largest university endowments a combined $33 billion.
BU has divested twice, from companies linked to Sudan during a time of civil unrest in 2006, and from fossil fuel companies in 2022, according to the university website.
The anti-Israel student group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was behind the effort to divest from Israel, as reported by The Algemeiner.
In a statement posted on Instagram on Feb. 13, BU’s SJP chapter critiqued the board of trustees’ decision not to divest, saying that the administration had been pressured into the decision by “Zionist supporters of genocide.”
“We have attempted to engage with the accepted university processes to urge responsible, ethical, and moral investment,” the group stated. “But, we have discovered these processes to be as corrupt as the investments, and we will take on the struggle to divest by other means.”
“We will not rest until our university divests from war and death,” the SJP chapter concluded.
Last semester, Boston University was investigated by the Department of Education following an anti-Semitism complaint filed against the school by Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief Zachary Marshall.
“As a Jewish student, I do not feel safe at Boston University,” one student wrote in a December 2023 op-ed about their experience at the school. “I no longer feel safe wearing my Magen David necklace with the same confidence I previously had. Instead, I find myself tucking it into my sweater in attempts to hide my Judaism.”
Campus Reform has contacted Boston University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
