Editor’s Note: Hampshire College is among the most prestigious, private, liberal arts colleges in New England, located in historic, Amherst, Massachusetts.  Fifty one years ago, presidents from four distinguished universities in Massachusetts began to “reexamine the assumptions and practices of liberal arts education. In 1965, an alumnus of Amherst College, Harold F. Johnson donated $6 million toward the founding of Hampshire College. In 1970 the four university presidents opened Hampshire College as an institution with “bold, influential—even radical—ideas in higher education”.

Since then “The New College Plan,” advocated by the founders, have been realized in the Hampshire curriculum through their emphasis on each student’s curiosity and motivation; broad, multidisciplinary learning; and close mentoring relationships with teachers. Hampshire has an endowment of $33 million and an annual operating budget of $60 million. It currently has 1,350 students enrolled and has graduated over 10,000 with a remarkable 6 year graduation rate of 71 per cent.

As a result of a two-year campaign by their student body, Hampshire College has decided to divest from companies that do business with Israel.

Axis of Logic correspondent, Elaine Antonia writes: 

“Hampshire’s divestment is what we hope to be the beginning of a growing trend. It was divestment that contributed to the dissolution of the apartheid government in South Africa. Money always speaks the loudest, especially in capitalistic countries like the US and Israel. The pressure on Hampshire College by the Israel Lobby is going to be intense and he punishment will be harsh. That's the way that the Israel lobby works!"

Included below the following article is a very carefully-worded and somewhat ambiguous statement by Hampshire College, that may reflect precisely the "pressure by the Israeli Lobby" described by Elaine Antonia. Regardless of how they choose to describe their divestment, we applaud Hampshire College for taking this bold, moral and responsible step to divest “from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine”.

- Les Blough, Editor

Hampshire College becomes first college in U.S. to divest from Israeli Occupation!

Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group pressured Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP’s “institutional statement” calling for the divestment. The proposal put forth by SJP was approved on Saturday, 7 Feb 2009 by the Board. By divesting from these companies, SJP believes that Hampshire has distanced itself from complicity in the illegal occupation and war crimes of Israel.

Meeting minutes from a committee of Hampshire’s Board of Trustees confirm that “President Hexter acknowledged that it was the good work of SJP that brought this issue to the attention of the committee.” This groundbreaking decision follows in Hampshire’s history of being the first college in the country to divest from apartheid South Africa thirty-two years ago, a decision based on similar human rights concerns. This divestment was also a direct result of student pressure.

The divestment has so far been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Rashid Khalidi, Vice President of the EU Parliament Luisa Morganitini, Cynthia McKinney, former member of the African National Congress Ronnie Kasrils, Mustafa Barghouti, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, John Berger, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, among others.

The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are: Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola, and Terex (see attached info sheet for more information on these corporations.) Furthermore, our policy prevents the reinvestment in any company involved in the illegal occupation.

SJP is responding to a call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as a way of bringing non-violent pressure to bear on the state of Israel to end its violations of international law. SJP is following in the footsteps of many noted groups and institutions such as the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in the UK, the Israeli group Gush Shalom, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the American Friends Service Committee.

As well as voicing our opposition to the illegal occupation and the consistent human rights violations of the Palestinian people, we as members of an institute of higher education see it as our moral responsibility to express our solidarity with Palestinian students whose access to education is severely inhibited by the Israeli occupation.

SJP has proven that student groups can organize, rally and pressure their schools to divest from the illegal occupation. The group hopes that this decision will pave the way for other institutions of higher learning in the U.S. to take similar stands.

Please send an email to Hampshire College, thanking them and supporting them to thank and support Hampshire College for taking this bold move to divest in Israeli-related companies. Please send your email to the Office of the President, Ralph J. Hexter and a copy to each of the following offices:

Brian J. Klitsch: Administrative Secretary to the President
bjklitsch@hampshire.edu

Diana Henley-Fernández: Executive Assistant to the President
dfernandez@hampshire.edu

Jaime Dávila: Special Presidential Assistant for Diversity and Multicultural Education: jdavila@hampshire.edu

Board of Trustees: nkelly@hampshire.edu

General: mailto:hampshiresjp@mail.com

Hampshire College:

Statement of Clarification Regarding Trustees’ Actions on College Investments

Statement of Clarification from Sigmund Roos (73F), chair of the board of trustees, Ralph Hexter, president, and Aaron Berman, vice president and dean of faculty, regarding trustees’ actions on college investments

We write to correct numerous reports circulating about actions taken by the Hampshire College board of trustees on February 7, 2009.  The facts are as follows:

On February 7, 2009, the Hampshire College board of trustees accepted the report of its investment committee, which earlier had voted, without reference to any country or political movement, to transfer assets held in a State Street fund to another fund.
Based on a comprehensive review of the fund by the trustee investment committee, administrators and an outside consultant, the college found that this fund held stocks in well over 200 companies engaged in business practices that violate the college’s policy on socially responsible investments.  These violations include: unfair labor practices, environmental abuse, military weapons manufacturing, and unsafe workplace settings.

The review also led the board of trustees to vote to revise its 1994 socially responsible investment policy to bring it up-to-date with current standards and practices, and, pending revision, to suspend that policy.

The review of the State Street fund was undertaken at the request of a sub-committee of the investment committee, to address a petition from a student group, Students for Justice in Palestine. The investment committee’s decision, however, was based on the consultant’s finding that the State Street fund included 200-plus companies engaged in multiple violations of the college’s investment policy; the decision expressly did not pertain to a political movement or single out businesses active in a specific region or country.

No other report or interpretation of the actions of February 7, 2009 by the Hampshire College board of trustees is accurate.

http://www.hampshire.edu/news/11271.htm