While the University of New Hampshire Foundation Board’s Investment Committee met inside the Elliott Alumni Center on the morning of Oct. 17, a small group of Palestine Solidarity Coalition (PSC) members gathered outside, shouting a variety of chants encouraging divestment.
Attendees gathered behind the main entrance of the Elliott Alumni Center, down a small hill, situated near the building’s service entrance. At the center’s main entrance, a handmade sign which read, ‘U.N.H. For Free Palestine’ accompanied by the image of a dove carrying the Palestinian flag, was tied between the two flag poles; a Palestinian flag was flying atop the leftmost pole.
“Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” they chanted.
According to a PSC press release, this event was centered around “demanding that UNH divests from genocide and apartheid, and invests in the UNH community.” In particular, the PSC wants UNH to divest from companies, such as weapons manufacturers, which are profiting from the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
“Hopefully they’ll be discussing what they’re hearing right now because they’re supposed to be accountable to the UNH students and alumni,” said Sebastian Rowan, a Ph.D. candidate and member of the PSC. He continued by making note that over 1,000 UNH students have signed a petition demanding that UNH divest from companies supporting Israel.
The UNH Foundation Board’s Investment Committee oversees the ongoing investment of the UNH endowment, which is funded by donations to the university. The investments themselves are managed by fund managers. The endowment does not include money accumulated by student tuition and fees, according to UNH Foundation President Debbie Dutton.
The overall goal of these investments, and their management, is “providing a continuing and stable funding source to support the current and future mission of UNH,” according to the UNH Foundation’s website. Only a portion of the money made from these investments, around $20 million annually, is spent by UNH each year. About half of this sum is used by UNH for scholarships, while the other half goes to research, endowed professorships, athletics, and “programmatic initiatives,” said Dutton.
According to Dutton, around 0.15% of UNH investments, a sum equal to around $900,000, is invested in Israel-based companies. Dutton noted that divestment of these funds would be “very challenging,” because UNH doesn’t directly hold any stock in these companies, a result of the fact that UNH’s investments are held within “commingled funds.”
Dutton said that essentially UNH “does not have any ability to force the fund managers” to divest, furthering her claim on the difficulty of divestment from specific companies.
“The only alternative would be to sell the funds themselves in their entirety, causing significant disruption to the endowment portfolios and generating significant costs . . . negatively [impacting] UNH’s portfolio and [reducing] the support of the many purposes of the endowment,” said Dutton.
“During the 40-plus years of the UNH endowment, we have never divested from a sector, industry, or region,” said Dutton.
Dutton offered to meet with PSC, “both prior to and during their demonstration,” mentioning that she had also met with the organization last spring.
“We [the UNH Foundation] respect the PSC’s right to express their opinions,” said Dutton
According to Rowan, the PSC is still rebuilding following the events of May 1, when 12 people were arrested at a pro-Palestine protest on Thompson Hall’s lawn, citing safety as a major concern amongst why students may not want to associate with the group.
“Some students left UNH because they no longer felt safe on campus…people feel unsafe attending Palestine events, not because of us or because we’re not being peaceful, but because people are afraid that the university will call the state police again to show up with weapons to harm students,” said Rowan.
“They’re also worried that they might face repercussions in terms of the job market or other sorts of blowback for just being associated with this ‘controversial topic’,” Rowan added.
