MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — On college campuses across the country, a rallying cry from pro-Palestinian protesters has been “ Disclose, yield! We will not stop, we will not rest.
Today, some are winning their case on the first of these two demands: promises to provide information on the cost of university studies endowment money is invested in companies that benefit from Israel-Hamas War.
As part of that effort, the University of Minnesota, for example, revealed this week that about $5 million of its $2.27 billion in investments — or less than a quarter of 1 percent — are linked to Israeli companies or American defense contractors.
For Ali Abu, a 19-year-old student at the University of Minnesota and member of Students for Justice in Palestine, the disclosure is a first step in what he described as “just the beginning of our fight.” The ultimate goal, he says, remains divestment. A meeting with the university’s board of trustees is scheduled for Friday.
But Jewish leaders have raised concerns, and foundation experts say the potential consequences of disclosure are difficult to predict. Transparency, they say, has pros and cons.
“I think the broader trend toward transparency is probably healthy. When faced with a very tense situation, I think people become nervous. Once the information is there, what do we do with it? said Kevin Maloney, a former investment manager who is now chairman of the finance department at Bryant University in Rhode Island.
Endowments are few federal regulations compared to other fundraising institutions. And there have long been calls for more transparency.
Maloney said portfolio managers might simply say they don’t want to bother with all the attention.
University endowments are increasingly targeted by activists who divest from them.
Over the past decade, students have pushed universities to cut financial ties with fossil fuel producers, weapons makers, tobacco companies and prison companies. This has often been done in tandem with students of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which seeks to sever ties with Israel and the corporations that support it.
Most universities have stood their ground, saying their investments provide financial aid for future generations and should be protected from politics.
Neal Stoughton, a finance professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, said colleges are reluctant to release information because they don’t want competition with other universities or institutions. He likened it to the reluctance of billionaires to share investment advice.
“These kinds of people don’t tell you exactly where all their money is,” said Stoughton, former director of the Center for Endowment Research at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria. He currently does research and consulting at the University of Arizona.
At the University of Michigan, officials responded to recent calls for divestment by saying the institution’s decades-old policy “is to protect the endowment from political pressures and to base our investment decisions solely on financial factors such as risk and return.
What you need to know about student protests
Michigan’s policy allows for exceptions — it has divested from tobacco companies and apartheid-era South Africa — but the bar “has been intentionally set extremely high.”
Officials only revealed that there were no direct investments with Israeli companies and that indirect investments through funds amount to less than $15 million, a small fraction of the $18 billion university endowment dollars.
Universities also discuss the complexities associated with divestment. A large portion of endowments is often held in investment funds that pool together a large number of assets. It can be difficult to know exactly where the money is going, and universities generally can’t choose among a fund’s investments.
A graduate student in orange rolls up his tents in front of a sign reading “Gaza Solidarity Camp, Divest Now!” » on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Trisha Ahmed, File)
Other schools that have opted for the disclosure route include Northwestern University outside Chicago, which said in an agreement published on its website last week, he will answer questions from any internal stakeholders regarding the holdings.
THE University of California, Riversidealso announced that it would begin publishing information online with the aim of “fully disclosing the list of portfolio companies and the size of investments.”
And in New York state, Vassar College promised “greater transparency regarding major independent contractors,” as well as a review of a proposal to divest from defense-related investments.
At the University of Minnesota, the decision to provide more details about staffing came as part of a deal to end protesters’ encampment on the Minneapolis campus. Chants in recent weeks have included “Not another nickel, not another dime.” More money for Israel’s crimes.”
Tye Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said the disclosure would only lead to calls for divestment and would risk harming Jewish students without actually changing the course of the fighting in Gaza.
“In my experience, unless you give in to all their demands, they will not give in to the administration,” he said. “And the administrations are not able to give in to all their demands. My advice — and not that they will accept it — is therefore not to negotiate on this point. You’re not going to make them happy.
Abu, who is one of the leaders of the protest, said students plan to demand full disclosure of all investments at Friday’s regents meeting, beyond the $5 million that leaders Academics have already provided details.
The information provided by the school names various companies in which the university has interests through investments or funds. The list includes defense contractor Honeywell, which protesters have singled out at rallies. Honeywell did not immediately return an email message from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The goal, Abu said, is to “target all arms companies that the university invests in, as well as any stocks or contracts and bonds of countries complicit in war crimes.”
___
Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Collin Binkley of Washington, D.C., contributed.
News Source : apnews.com
Gn usa
