 "Brown University, Israel, Palestine")
Brown University, Israel, Palestine | Credit: Bloomberg
Brown University trustee Joseph Edelman resigned in protest against the school’s upcoming vote on whether to divest from companies linked to Israel, saying the decision reflects a troubling stance toward rising antisemitism on campus.
Edelman, a trustee since 2019 and chief executive officer of investment firm Perceptive Advisors, criticized Brown’s decision to hold the vote as “morally reprehensible” in an adapted version of his resignation letter published in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
“The university leadership has for some reason chosen to reward, rather than punish, the activists for disrupting campus life, breaking school rules, and promoting violence and antisemitism at Brown,” Edelman wrote. “I am unwilling to lend my name or give my time to a body that lacks basic moral judgment.”
Brian Clark, a school spokesperson, responded that Edelman has a “fundamental misunderstanding of the decisions that led to the upcoming vote on divestment.”
“Far from a direct response to current activism, Brown is following an established process that is nearly a half-century old,” Clark said. “This long-held process is built on the principle that Brown has an obligation to examine and investigate claims challenging its moral responsibility.”
The proposed divestment vote, to be held in October, was driven by demands from pro-Palestinian student groups following a wave of campus unrest at Brown and across the US earlier this year.
It’s unclear if the kind of protests that roiled college campuses in the spring will cause the same kind of turmoil in this new fall semester after school leaders set out new rules. Divestment ranked among the demonstrators’ top demands at universities such as Harvard, Columbia and Northwestern as students sought to leverage their schools’ wealth to put pressure on Israel and weapons makers.
As part of an April agreement to clear a protest encampment, a committee of students, faculty and alumni will make recommendations on divestment to be voted on by Brown’s board of trustees, led by Bank of America Corp. CEO Brian Moynihan.
Barry Sternlicht, a real estate investor and former Brown trustee, has slammed the university for legitimizing the debate on divestment, and last month 24 state attorneys general warned Brown, which is in Rhode Island, that it could face financial penalties if it proceeds with divesting.
Critics argue that the measure, which targets companies with close ties to Israel, risks politicizing the management of the university’s more than $6 billion endowment. University administrators and lawmakers across the country have also for years rejected the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, or BDS, movement against Israel, viewing it as antisemitic because it calls into question the legitimacy of the Jewish state and singles out the policies of one country.
At Northwestern University, protesters were also promised a meeting about the endowment as a condition to clear their encampment earlier this year.
Endowment staff members met with students in June to answer general questions about how decisions are made, how endowment investments work, the role of outside mangers hired to buy individual securities or funds and in some cases they discussed a limited number of holdings, said spokesman Jon Yates. There were no changes to endowment investments coming out of this meeting, Yates said.
The fund at Northwestern, where classes begin later in September, is $13.7 billion.
Harvard University President Alan Garber said before commencement he would facilitate a meeting with the chair of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility and other University officials to address questions about the endowment. The university has been firm that leaders won’t consider divestment. Harvard’s endowment at $50.7 billion makes it the richest US college.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Sep 09 2024 | 11:50 PM IST
