Boston University’s Board of Trustees decided to turn down two proposals calling on the university to divest from Israel.
The proposals in question urged the school to cut off ties with Israel, among other causes, as reported by BU Today.
The board voted on the two proposals on Feb. 11.
[RELATED: Pittsburgh university officials attend training on ‘Combating Antisemitism’]
Boston University President Melissa L. Gilliam commented on the vote, highlighting that the school will stop contemplating such divestment measures in the future.
“The endowment is no longer the vehicle for political debate; nevertheless, I will continue to seek ways that members of our community can engage with each other on political issues of our day, including the conflict in the Middle East, with tolerance and respect for one another,” Gillam said, as BU Today wrote.
Cutler Cleveland, a professor at Boston University’s School of Arts and Sciences, suggested in an Aug. 16, 2024 op-ed for BU Today that divestment forces universities “in[to] an untenable position regarding their educational, research, and financial responsibilities.”
The university’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, which submitted one of the divestment proposals, took to social media to slam the school’s refusal to divest.
The SJP complained that the board was “silenc[ing]” the “student body,” and added: “We have attempted to engage with the accepted university processes to urge responsible, ethical, and moral investment. But, we have discovered these processes to be as corrupt as the investments, and we will take on the struggle to divest by other means.”
[RELATED: UC Berkeley hosted event denying Hamas terrorists’ sexual assault of Israeli women]
“We will not rest until our university divests from war and death,” the SJP’s message concluded.
Though demands for divestment were a frequent call to arms during the 2024 anti-Israel campus protests, more and more colleges and universities have been rejecting these efforts to cut off ties with the Jewish state.
The University of Maine System, Rice University’s student body, and Sarah Lawrence College–among other institutions–all said “No” to divestment recently.
Campus Reform has contacted Boston University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
Author
