Williams College trustees reject divestment plan as SJP vows to keep 'pressure' on the school
The board of trustees of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts has declined a divestment proposal by anti-Israel student groups.
The student groups pitched their plan to the trustees in September, but were notified of their rejection on Oct. 30, and released a statement on Sunday.
The board of trustees of a college in Williamstown, Massachusetts has declined a divestment proposal by anti-Israel student groups.
The Williams College Board of Trustees rejected the plan put forth by the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter and Jews for Justice organization, as noted by The Williams Record.
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The student groups pitched their plan to the trustees in September, but were notified of their rejection on Oct. 30. The SJP group took to Instagram to announce the trustees’ decision and issue a response on Sunday.
”The investment committee maintained that the first three of our four demands were ‘not aligned with our fiduciary responsibility,’ making them ‘impossible’ to accept. Despite repeatedly citing financial risk, they provided no quantitative evidence for their claims,” the chapter wrote. “They made clear that preventing potential harm to the endowment, no matter how small this may be, was more important to the College than the lives of individuals affected by armed conflict worldwide.”
The student group’s post indicated that the demands included a “public commitment” to divest from defense contractors, another “public commitment” to adhere to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices, the creation of “socially responsible and ethical investment standards” for the college investment office, as well as increased endowment transparency.
”Williams SJP will continue to campaign for investment disclosure and targeted divestment from arms manufacturing,” the SJP chapter continued. “We presented this proposal, but it is up to all of us to carry this work forward and maintain pressure on our administration.”
”Free Palestine,” the statement concluded.
In March, the two student groups co-authored an op-ed calling for divestment and “equity” in The Williams Record.
”The College perpetuates a culture hostile to faculty and students of color, demonstrated by a persistently low retention rate for faculty of color and lack of adequate financial and resource-based support for ethnic studies programs,” the groups wrote. “We demand the College to improve faculty of color retention by committing to the following: surveying and respecting the priorities of community members of color and hiring more faculty of color from a range of backgrounds, especially for tenure-track lines.”
”We believe that the genocide of Palestinians constitutes a harm grave enough that the College has a duty to act accordingly with their investments,” the groups stated. “In all, we call upon the College to act according to its purported principles of creating an equitable and inclusive space for all, and to move forward with decisions that prioritize those communities who have been historically marginalized and underserved by it.”