This Letter to the Editor was received on Dec. 9, 2024.

On December 5, Clark University President David Fithian released a communication clarifying the Board of Trustees (BoT) position on divesting from investments with Israeli ties. Divestment is not a new conversation. In 1986, Clark University BoT voted to divest stock of all companies operating in apartheid South Africa.

So why can’t they do it again?

Per his communication, President Fithian claims Clark’s endowment “is not intended to be used as an instrument to express views on social or political issues,” and will not “force involuntary adoption of one particular point of view over others.”

Again, divestment is not a new conversation. Apartheid in South Africa was violent, racist, and relied on Western governments and weapons. Today, Israel’s apartheid far exceeds South Africa’s, even before considering its genocide of 186,000 Palestinians in Gaza (a conservative estimate from The Lancet, an international medical journal, from November 16 of this year).

This is not about petty disagreements; the Gaza genocide is fact, verified by the UN and Amnesty International. This is serious: Clark University is choosing to invest in companies that profit from death during an active ethnic cleansing. Unsurprisingly, Clark BoT chair is a retired executive of Booz Allen Hamilton, an American military contractor, and no less than 13 of 31 Trustees are financial asset managers. US banks are primary stockholders of weapons manufacturers.

Clark funnels the endowment to the USA’s forever wars but claims it’s not political. Divestiture requires divesting from the Board’s employers! The President and Board resoundingly command: 

Do not challenge convention. Do not change the world.

Brenner Burkholder

M.S. GIS ‘23