New School faculty members voted in favor of a resolution urging the university for financial transparency and to completely divest from companies supporting and arming Israel. The results were sent to the Board of Trustees in advance of a meeting that took place today from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The resolution comes after Mark Diaz, executive vice president of business and operations, confirmed to TNS Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) that the university’s endowment was indirectly invested in 13 of 14 companies SJP demanded the school divest from.
Those 13 companies include AXA, the Boeing Company, Caterpillar Inc., CEMEX, the Chevron Corporation, Elbit Systems Ltd., General Electric, Google LLC, Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin, Motorola Solutions Inc., Northrop Grumman Corporation, and the Raytheon Company.
On Sunday, April 28, a resolution was circulated amongst faculty and staff at The New School calling on the university to completely divest from the 13 companies. In an email provided to the New School Free Press, faculty were urged to vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the resolution by May 2.
The resolution “formally calls on the New School Investment Committee to commit to a complete divestment from the aforementioned corporations,” and “formally calls on the New School Investment Committee to commit to total financial transparency.”
After the close of the vote at 10 a.m. today, the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts Faculty Council sent an email to faculty informing them of the results.
Out of the 209 Lang faculty members, 129 voted. 88% voted in favor of the resolution. Parsons School of Design had 85 votes with 81% in agreement, New School for Social Research (NSSR) had 57 votes with 90% in agreement, and School of Public Engagement (SPE) had 83 votes with 81% in agreement.
The Board of Trustees only meets three times a year, and the email notes that the urgency to collect votes from faculty was to ensure that the results of the vote were sent to the board prior to their meeting today.
In a message published by SJP on their Telegram broadcast channel, the group announced that a human blockade has begun at the University Center, and will remain in place until a vote to divest is reached. The message also says that “emergency exits and select egress points will be maintained for those who wish to exit the building.”
Let’s remember: in the aftermath of the Holocaust, Jews fled every which way. Israel was where Zionists fled. Most Jews did not go to Israel. Furthermore, the Pittsburgh Platform in the US (which was the start for the Jewish Reform Movement) explicitly encouraged Jews NOT to go to Israel – opting instead for US immigration. Proud of New School faculty and students for taking a stand against the Israeli Genocide of Palestinians.
Shame on the faculty for supporting divestment from Israel. The history of The New School includes the University in Exile, notably Jewish scholars who fled Hitler’s Nazi Germany. In the aftermath of the Holocaust Jews fled to Israel.