Kudos to the board of trustees for standing up to this. The students claim they’re going to keep pushing it.
Campus Reform reports:
University of Maine System declines divestment proposal, anti-Israel student group vows to fight backThe University of Maine System’s board of trustees will not divest from Israel in spite of demands from a left-wing student group.Despite pressure from the university’s Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter, trustees decided against divestment during a special Dec. 17 online meeting.“There was consensus among our committee that to take a position on your demands would effectively shut down opportunities for conversation, including about the horrors of the conflict in the Middle East and elsewhere, and in doing so, undermine our educational mission,” Trustee Trish Riley reportedly wrote to the student group after the meeting.Riley also said that divestment “would compromise the critical role of our public universities in fostering understanding, discussion, and examination of complex issues through academic inquiry and research,” according to the Portland Press Herald.In response to the board’s decision, one JVP activist reportedly stated, “We’re not done.”“Frankly, it’s hard to believe that they actually believe that we’re done,” the student official said, according to WCSH.The outlet reports that the University of Maine JVP chapter has approximately 10 active members, with roughly five being Jewish.”Like generations of Jewish leftists before us, we fight for the liberation of all people,” the student group’s official website states. “We believe that through organizing, we can and will dismantle the institutions and structures that sustain injustice and grow something new, joyful, beautiful, and life-sustaining in their place.”
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