Brown University Board won’t vote on divestment amid student hunger strike

Nineteen students at Brown University were joined by dozens of supporters at a rally on the school’s main campus green on Monday, during their fourth day of a hunger strike meant to put pressure on the university to divest from “companies which profit from human rights abuses in Palestine.”

The rally comes after Brown University’s president sent the students a letter on Friday, saying she does not plan to ask the body governing the university to vote on a divestment proposal.

Activism surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has escalated on the school’s campus since fighting broke out in the region on Oct. 7, resulting in the deaths of nearly 27,000 Gazans, many of them children, and more than 1,200 Israelis.

Etta Robb is one of the nineteen students on hunger strike.

“I'm feeling nauseous, and a little lightheaded,” she said Monday.

Robb said she’s motivated to continue the strike because of Paxson’s refusal and the support she’s receiving from her peers.

“I believe that this is one of the most important fights of our generation and that we all have a responsibility to it,” Robb said.

Supporters plan to hold daily events in support of the striking students, like the rally attended by more than 100 people on Monday that included singing, chanting, and marching. The students on hunger strike are also being promoted online. A tweet featuring a photo of them and their demands has been shared more than a thousand times on X (formerly Twitter).

The protesters’ main demand has been for the university to divest its $6.6 billion endowment according to the recommendation of a 2020 report put out by a board that advised the school on its investment policies at that time. According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, through Brown’s holdings in funds, the endowment is indirectly invested in aerospace and defense contractors, which could supply weapons or parts to Israel’s military.

Brown University president Christina Paxson has repeated her refusal to bring the topic of divestment to a vote at the university’s board meetings, the most recent of which are scheduled for this week, culminating in a final meeting on Feb. 10.

In her letter to the students that was released end of day Friday, Paxson said she “will not revisit” a report from 2020 that she says did not meet the standards established for the advisory board that made the recommendations, the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Practices, or ACCRIP. That group has since been replaced by the Advisory Committee on University Resource Management, or ACURM.

Paxson’s letter did not take a stance on the substance of the students’ concerns about the ongoing military conflict or divestment.

“It is not appropriate for the University to use its financial assets — which are there to support our entire community — to ‘take a side’ on issues on which thoughtful people vehemently disagree,” Paxson wrote.

Paxson encouraged the students protesting to attend to their health and “engage with Campus Life staff.” She said “protest is also unacceptable if it creates a substantial threat to personal safety of any member of the community.”

Students responded to Paxson over the weekend, expanding on the 2020 report they have used to center their divestment demands. They delivered the expanded report in person to her on Monday afternoon.

The Public’s Radio in Rhode Island and WBUR have a partnership in which the news organizations collaborate and share stories. This story was originally published by The Public's Radio.