Brown University Trustee Joseph Edelman has resigned in protest of the university’s upcoming vote on divestment from companies with ties to Israel, saying the decision reflects worrying attitudes about growing anti-Semitism on campus.
Edelman, who has served on the board since 2019 and is now CEO of investment firm Perceptive Advisors, criticized Brown’s decision to conduct the vote as “morally reprehensible” in an updated resignation letter published in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
“For some reason, university leadership has chosen to reward, rather than punish, activists who have disrupted campus life, broken school rules, and incited violence and anti-Semitism at Brown,” Edelman wrote. “I have no intention of lending my name or time to an organization that lacks basic moral judgment.”
School spokesman Brian Clark countered that Edelman “fundamentally misunderstands the decisions that led to the upcoming vote on divestment.”
“Far from being a direct response to current activists, Brown is following a process that is well established and dates back nearly half a century,” Clark said in a statement. “This long-standing process is based on the principle that Brown has an obligation to investigate allegations that call into question its moral responsibility.”
The proposed divestment vote, set to take place in October, was driven by demands from pro-Palestinian student groups following a spate of campus unrest at Brown University and across the US earlier this year.
It’s unclear whether the kind of protests that roiled college campuses in the spring after university officials enacted the new rules will spark similar unrest this fall semester. At Harvard, Columbia, Northwestern and other universities, students have sought to use their schools’ wealth to pressure Israel and weapons manufacturers, and divestment has been one of demonstrators’ top demands.
As part of the April agreement to clear the protest camps, a committee of students, faculty and alumni will develop recommendations on divestment that will be voted on by Brown University’s board of trustees, led by Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.
Barry Sternright, a real estate investor and former Brown University trustee, has accused universities of justifying the divestment discussions, and last month attorneys general from 24 states warned Rhode Island’s Brown University that it could face fines if it went ahead with divestment.
Critics say the measures, which target companies with close ties to Israel, threaten to politicize the university’s management of its more than $6 billion endowment. University officials and lawmakers across the country have also long rejected the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, viewing it as anti-Semitic because it questions the legitimacy of the Jewish state and targets only one country’s policies.
Northwestern University had promised protesters a meeting over donations as a condition for removing the encampment earlier this year.
Endowment officials met with students in June to answer general questions about how decisions are made, how endowment investments work, the role of outside managers hired to buy individual securities and funds, and in some cases to discuss a limited number of holdings, spokesman John Yates said. No changes were made to endowment investments as a result of the meeting, Yates said.
Northwestern University, where classes begin in late September, has an endowment of $13.7 billion.
Harvard President Alan Gerber said he would meet with the chairman of the Corporate Committee on Shareholder Responsibility and other university officials before the commencement ceremony to answer questions about the endowment. The university has been adamant that officials will not consider divestment. Harvard’s endowment of $50.7 billion makes it the richest university in the United States.
Garber and Mariano Florentino Cuellar, a fellow on the Harvard University Board of Trustees, met with students last week, according to the Harvard Crimson.
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First Published: September 9, 2024 | 11:50 PM IST