U. officials say Rutgers divestment depends on Joint Committee on Investments, Assembly next steps
On April 16, Rutgers—New Brunswick became the last of the three campuses to pass a vote calling for the University to divest from companies that profit from or engage with the Israeli government's human rights violations. The next step lies in the hands of the Joint Committee on Investments, according to a University spokesperson.
The Daily Targum reached out to the University administration, the Rutgers University Student Assembly and the Endowment Justice Collective (EJC) for comment.
Despite President Jonathan Holloway's statement disfavoring the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, the ultimate say on the University's investments lies in the Joint Committee on Investments, per University Policy 40.2.14, according to a University spokesperson. The referendum indicates that the Assembly should now pursue the divestment request process outlined in the policy, according to the spokesperson.
The 40.2.14 policy outlines four guidelines around divestment requests. The first and third points state that a request must be in line with the University's asset management duties and represent the Rutgers community's overarching perspectives on the matter. The second and fourth bullets elaborate that the subject of the divestment must also be counter to the University's mission and ideals and have some responsibility in the University's area of concern.
"The primary purpose of any divestment is to express unequivocally and publicly the University's view on an issue rather than to bring about an economic impact through our endowment's investment action," the policy reads.
The Assembly bill 17S24-04 further states that in the case of an affirmative vote, the Assembly takes on an official position of pushing for divestment from the Israeli government's "settler colonialism, apartheid and genocide of Palestine and the Palestinian people," as well as an institutional separation from Tel Aviv University (TAU), such as in the New Jersey Innovation and Technology Hub.
While the Assembly did not respond to specific questions about the vote's impact and related communications with student groups, it did say that there is no defined path of action for advocacy, citing transitions in the Assembly's leadership.
A statement from the EJC read that the group does not expect divestment to directly result from the vote. The affirmative vote is instead meant to represent Rutgers students' opinions around divestment and disengagement from Israel.
When asked if the EJC communicated with University administrators or the Assembly around the vote, EJC noted that its members were turned away during last Thursday's Board of Governors meeting in Camden, according to an Instagram post by the EJC. The post read that members did not register for public comment ahead of time.
"We are very confident in our efforts because we know that we will not rest until we divest," the statement from the EJC read. "We are just as confident that we will free Palestine within our lifetime."
