RISD’s Board Rejects Israel Divestment Proposal

DIVINE SUPERINTENDENCE, RI – APRIL 25: The RISD Museum on the campus of the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI is visualized on April 25, 2019. (Image by Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) Boston Globe through Getty Images

According to The Brown Daily, the board concluded during that meeting that it would reach a decision on the proposal by very early March. On January 15, nonetheless, the institution’s administration sent out a mass e-mail revealing that the proposition was denied. (Administrations at Trinity, Oberlin University, Brown College and many others have actually similarly rejected proposals to divest funds from business with service interests in Israel.).

The proposal was led by participants of RISD’s Students for Justice in Palestine (RSJP) chapter. Their reps met RISD President Crystal Williams, who assumed the placement in 2022, and the Board’s Investment Board in October.

Jo Ouyang, a trainee rep for RISD SJP chapter told ARTnews the team planned to appeal the choice. “Despite the RISD Administration and Board of Trustees’ absence of transparency about a feasible reversing process, we will certainly proceed advocating for divestment from business helping with the occupation and genocide in Palestine and calling for the Board of Trustees to listen to the autonomous demands of its students, faculty, and area members.”.

The administration’s email mentioned suggestions from the Stewardship & Sustainability Committee and its Financial Investment Subcommittee. It states that the proposition did not fulfill RISD’s 2015 divestment policies, which specify premises for monetary divestment need to satisfy “the organization’s concerns all at once as opposed to details constituent groups.”.

The choice adhered to months of on-campus demonstrations by pro-Palestinian student-activists at the art college, consisting of a three-day building occupation in very early Might in 2015, causing ask for openness on RISD’s investments, divestment from teams presumably supporting “Israel discrimination,” and other demands for a student-led financial investment oversight board.