On Thursday, five students will present a divestment proposal to a select group of Corporation members as the first step in the agreement between protesters and administrators that ended the encampment on the University鈥檚 Main Green.
The proposal, which was released during a hunger strike in February, is a 鈥淐ritical Edition鈥� of a 2020 from the Advisory Committee on Corporation Responsibility in Investment Practices that calls for the University to divest from 鈥渃ompanies identified as facilitating human rights violations in Palestine.鈥�
The meeting follows a five-day encampment for divestment on the Main Green by over 100 students. After negotiations, President Christina Paxson P鈥�19 P鈥橫D鈥�20 agreed to allow students to present their proposal in front of a group of Corporation members in May. The governing body will hold an official vote during its meeting in October.
The five student presenters are Niyanta Nepal 鈥�25, Hisham Awartani 鈥�25, Eli Grossman 鈥�24, Victoria Antonetti GS and Aboud Ashhab 鈥�25. They were selected among students who were involved with activism in support of divestment.
Awartani is one of the three Palestinian college students who was injured in a November shooting in Burlington, Vermont, The Herald previously reported. Nepal, the president-elect of the Undergraduate Council of Students, ran on a pro-divestment platform and won election in March with 63% of votes.
Grossman, Antonetti and Ashhab have been heavily involved with campus activism surrounding the war between Israel and Hamas, and Grossman and Antonetti were lead authors of the Critical Edition of the ACCRIP report.
University administrators have maintained that Brown is not directly invested in weapons manufacturers, and that it selects external investment 鈥渕anagers whose values are aligned with the Brown community,鈥� according to the Investment Office.
In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Grossman told The Herald that they hope to communicate to the Corporation 鈥渢he expectations from our community for what we consider a fair vote be,鈥� citing the meeting鈥檚 importance in 鈥渞ebuilding trust between the Corporation and the community.鈥�
The five students, who spoke at the conference, said they felt that the University鈥檚 past decisions, such as Paxson鈥檚 refusal to accept the Brown University Community Council鈥檚 recommendation to drop the charges against the 41 students arrested at a December sit-in, have damaged the community鈥檚 trust in Brown鈥檚 democratic structures.
The five students will also try to ensure that information communicated at tomorrow鈥檚 meeting will be shared with Corporation members who won鈥檛 be present, Nepal added.
They were not able to share which members of the Corporation will be in attendance.
Regarding the Corporation vote in October, 鈥渨e鈥檙e confident that we鈥檙e going to win,鈥� Grossman said.
Kathy Wang is the senior editor of community of The Brown Daily Herald's 134th Editorial Board. She previously covered student government and international student life as a University News editor. When she's not at The Herald, you can find her watching cooking videos or writing creative nonfiction.
Julia Vaz is the managing editor of newsroom and vice president on The Herald's 134th Editorial Board. Previously, she covered Environment and Crime & Justice as a Metro editor. A concentrator in political science and modern culture and media, she loves watching Twilight (as a comedy) and casually dropping the fact she is from Brazil.
