On Thursday, May 2, the Pomona College faculty voted in favor of a resolution to “divest from corporations complicit with war crimes and other human rights violations committed by the Israeli government in Israel/Palestine.” The resolution received a 64 percent vote in support, achieving the majority needed to pass.
The faculty meeting, the final one scheduled for this academic year, commenced at 12 p.m. in Pomona’s Edmunds Ballroom. After addressing routine “college business,” the motion on divestment was presented and opened for discussion. Around six faculty members spoke in support of the motion before more than two-thirds of attendees called the question to a vote, where it won a 64 percent vote of approval.
Pomona Politics Professor Amanda Hollis-Brusky explained that leading up to the meeting, she was unsure which way it would go.
“From my perspective, I really had been hearing from vocal faculty on either side,” Hollis-Brusky said in an interview with TSL. “But it was very mysterious to me until we got in there which way the vote was going to go.”
This vote followed a statement posted on May 1 by Faculty for Justice in Palestine and Pomona Divest from Apartheid on behalf of the 20 5C students arrested on April 5, in which they called on the Pomona faculty to stand with them by voting in support of the resolution. They emphasized the connection between their arrests, the occupation of Palestine and the nationwide Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement.
“To condemn the use of riot gear and militarized police on Pomona’s campus is also to condemn the IOF’s militarized occupation and genocidal assault on Palestine,” the post reads. “If you stand with us, you stand with divestment.”
Several weeks prior to Thursday’s vote, more than 80 faculty members signed a faculty letter endorsing a student referendum that called for divestment and was passed in February with overwhelming support. In addition to urging the college to take action on divestment.
“We support the college divesting from firms that enable Israel’s system of apartheid, as part of a broader socially responsible investment policy,” the statement reads. “To this end, and, in the spirit of transparency called for by the referendum, we seek an answer within the next two weeks as to whether the College holds, either directly or indirectly, investments in the eleven ‘divestment and exclusion targets’ identified by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.”
Thursday’s resolution specified these targets as eleven corporations: Barclays, CAF, Caterpillar Inc., Chevron, Elbit Systems Ltd., HD Hyundai, HIKVision, Intel, JCB, TKF Security and Volvo.
It further requested a written and in-person report from the Pomona Board of Trustees’ investment committee “no later than the first faculty meeting following the trustees’ October meeting.”
Hollis-Brusky explained that while the letter was significant, many felt an official faculty vote would be more impactful in demonstrating faculty’s commitment to divestment.
“Initially the idea was maybe to take that letter to the Board [of Trustees], but then the faculty who brought the motion forward thought it would be more powerful to put it before the whole faculty,” Hollis-Brusky said. “[This] was a risk, of course, because we didn’t know where everyone [stood].”
Hollis-Brusky emphasized that conversation amongst her colleagues was primarily motivated by the administration’s response on and since the events of April 5. But, she also noted that recent agreements between students and university administration — such as those at Brown University and Northwestern University — influenced many people’s decisions, noting that the examples set at those schools provide many with a hopeful outlook for the future.
“The impetus for organizing was mostly around student arrests, [but] it was encouraging to see there were institutions across the country that had listened to students and faculty and diffused tensions on campus and come to more of a peaceful, deliberative resolution,” she said.
She explained that these civil agreements, in contrast to aggressive responses by other universities, underscored the pressing need for faculty to take an active role in guiding the 5C community toward a more collaborative future between the administration, faculty and students.
“Seeing that happen repeatedly, and then seeing the opposite extreme, what’s happening at UCLA, what’s happening at Columbia, put some additional urgency behind [this as] a path forward for our community,” Hollis-Brusky said.
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