The workshop was intended to educate and activate the student body surrounding the issue of divestment
Editor’s Note: Some sources have been granted anonymity in light of a nation-wide crackdown on student activists, especially in instances of pro-Palestine advocacy. All quotes have been verified for accuracy.
More than 60 students from Smith and UMass gathered in Seelye 106 on the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 20 brought there by flyers reading: “Smith funds genocide. Learn about it!”
The divestment workshop, hosted by Smith Students for Justice in Palestine (SSJP), aimed to educate students about the campaign urging Smith to divest from companies that manufacture weapons, technology or other products that the group says contribute to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. The event included an informational portion as well as discussions, aiming to bring in a wide array of students and equip them with the background knowledge and vocabulary to discuss divestment in their spaces across campus.
SSJP has advocated for divestment since 2023. Divestment refers to the sale or reduction of investments, often for ethical or political reasons. One student organizer, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “We really feel that divestment is an issue that affects every student on this campus, because, in one way or another we all contribute financially to Smith as an institution.” They cited awareness, education and a call to action as the main goals of the event.
A significant portion of the workshop focused on outlining Smith’s investments, which SSJP believes are not discussed openly enough with the student body. They wanted to highlight Smith’s investment in companies like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, L3 Harris (located in Northampton), and several others, and make it tangibly clear how these investments play a direct role in the genocide. One of the organization’s main demands — outlined in the Ethical Investment Policy proposal they submitted to the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR) in collaboration with Alums for Justice in Palestine (AJP) last November — is increased financial transparency from the college.
Smith invests its $2.7 billion endowment through a combination of privately managed mutual funds and public exchange-traded Funds (ETFs). According to SSJP, President Sarah has repeatedly said that, on any given day, up to a quarter million dollars of the school’s endowment is invested in aerospace and defense companies through ETFs. For example, Lockheed Martin manufactures warplanes like the F-16, used by Israel in major assaults in Gaza, and has an ongoing multi-million dollar contract with the United States Department of Homeland Security. It currently stands as the highest invested weapons manufacturer in the college’s portfolio. A full list of the companies SSJP wants Smith to divest from — and why — can be found on the organization’s Instagram, with more information provided in the text of their proposal.
When asked to comment on behalf of the college, Assistant Director for News and Strategic Communications Barbara Solow shared this statement with the Sophian: “The college supports and endorses freedom of thought and expression as outlined within the parameters of Smith’s policies. Regarding requests for divestment in any business or fund, Smith has a formal process through the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR), a subcommittee of the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees. The website provides the detailed steps that students can pursue to put forward a divestment request. The ACIR will consider the request and make a recommendation.”
SSJP has followed these steps in the submission of their ethical investment proposal last November. A different SSJP organizer said that the ACIR has recently changed its guidelines regarding alumni involvement with proposals, and that this “makes it very difficult for people to have a genuine proposal to them.” “The ACIR doesn’t have anything they’re bound to in terms of genuinely considering student concerns … despite the fact that they argue they cannot make a decision without alumn consensus, which we have proven (exists through) that proposal, we have provided 30 pages of testimony saying that there is consensus, they’ve changed it in the last year so that alums cannot submit proposals because they found that (divestment) was too validated of a concern,” they said.
Solow also shared “To clarify what President Sarah shared regarding military contracts: With today’s interconnected computer systems, it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate out which companies do military contracts and which do not.” In response, the same organizer quoted above stated: “In the proposal we have provided specific definitions for what we would want these ETFs to be screened for. And also, it is their job to define (what to screen for) if it’s a concern for students and if it’s a concern for the Smith community.”
President Sarah also reportedly told SSJP that less than 1% of its endowment is invested in those companies. The organization is similarly unsatisfied with that answer.
“No amount of investment in genocide is negligible… Smith (has one of the) top 20 (largest) endowments in the country—we don’t know because we don’t have financial transparency, but that 1% is almost certainly a bigger number than we could ever fathom,” the first SSJP organizer said. “I think that argument falls flat really quickly when you look at how much money Smith has and how much of that money isn’t going into our education (and is instead) going to these horrific causes.” Presentation slides during the workshop included statements like ‘We should know where our money goes.’
Another key focus of the workshop was informing students about the history of divestment at Smith. The Smith website states that “At times, the college may consider matters of social responsibility — such as tackling climate change — and the endowment.” That statement refers to the college’s divestment from fossil fuels in 2019 after seven years of student organizing. In 1986, the college also divested from companies tied to apartheid in South Africa, following a sit-in at college hall, a college-wide teach-in and other student actions.
The first SSJP organizer said, “Smith has shown they want to be ethical with their investments in the past … Why did we make a commitment to divest from fossil fuels but not the war industry? … Why do we have an ACIR if we’re not doing responsible investing?” The second organizer also shared this sentiment.
SSJP encouraged workshop attendees to brainstorm ways that the current divestment campaign could take inspiration from its predecessors.
During the workshop, students were given many chances to engage in discussion. Questions included: “Did you know about these companies before you attended this presentation? How did this information change or inform your understanding?” and “What’s unclear/confusing about the Smith investment process?,” among others. Many students shared their thoughts either out loud or on large pieces of paper positioned on each table.
At the end of the workshop, when discussing how to engage with peers around divestment, one student offered a hypothetical response to complaints about student dining. “You could say something like ‘they can’t even provide us with good meals, but they can provide Israel with weapons!’” they shared – the response elicited a chuckle around the room, despite the gravity of the statement. According to the college’s website, “Spending from the endowment contributes 43% of Smith’s annual operating budget and serves as the college’s largest revenue source.”
Another student shared her feelings of tension between the college hosting a “Mountain Neighborhood Tea” with President Sarah Willie-LeBreton at the same time as the divestment workshop. “It feels like there are two sides to the college,” she said.
The first SSJP organizer also spoke to this perceived tension between the college’s day-to-day operations and its investments in weapons manufacturing. “…We’re in these Smith classes that teach us certain values… Smith’s investments in these companies is one of the most egregious examples of how dissonant it can feel to be here… The more students who are aware of that, the faster change can happen,” they said.
In the workshop, SSJP also highlighted what they see as a contradiction between the college’s statement of purpose and its claim that its investments do not have significant global impact.
SSJP and AJP are currently awaiting a response from the ACIR on the Ethical Investment Policy proposal. The committee is expected to decide by March. 568 members of the Smith community have signed their support of the proposal.
The first SSJP organizer emphasized the importance of student support for the proposal. “We want to show that the rest of the student body supports what we support, and we think that people do. It’s just a matter of getting that support to be more visible.”
In accordance with that statement, SSJP and other student groups collaborated with the Fort Hill Teachers Association and held a rally to protest the Board of Trustees’ visit to campus the weekend of Feb. 27, demanding they “Divest from weapons (and) invest in your workers.”
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