The Story of Evergreen’s First Israeli Divestment Campaign

by Sako Chapman

Divestment is a legal process that withdraws financial investment in corporations and entities that “engage in or profit from human rights abuses, unethical labor practices, and environmental destruction” (tescdivest.com via wayback machine). It is wholly institutional in nature. Divestment from Israel is one strategy of international solidarity with Palestine outlined by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) Movement that applies strategic economic pressure on corporations and entities that benefit or support Israeli apartheid and occupation. Originating in 2005 from a collection of Palestinian civil society organizations, BDS takes deliberate inspiration from the South African anti-apartheid movement and should be understood as a single non-violent, supportive organizational measure towards the liberation of Palestine. It is one that relies on deliberate mass movement over a long period of time. 

THE RESOLUTIONS: 

“TESC DIVEST!” was an organizing entity and campaign focused on the Evergreen State College (TESC)’s divestment active under this name from 2010 to 2012. It was well connected to national Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace, and BDS solidarity chapters across national institutions. Its endorsement list connected over 25 staff and faculty from Evergreen, 16 (particularly student of color) registered TESC student organizations, and interconnected figures and campaigns from across the US into significant united front work against Israeli apartheid. 

On June 2, 2010, students  of TESC DIVEST! in the 2009-2010 academic year cast a historic vote, after what is noted on their archived blog as over seven years of coordinating, organizing, and networking for Evergreen’s divestment. Though not the first vote of its language, it was the first direct student vote of an entire student body to pass resolutions in overwhelming favor for divestment. 

The resolutions called first for The Evergreen State College Foundation to “divest from companies that profit from Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, as part of instituting a socially responsible investment policy,” and second: for a complete ban on the use of Caterpillar, Inc. equipment from Evergreen’s campus, (tescdivest.blogspot.com) relevant for their profiting from the destruction of Palestinian homes and locally specific to the martyrdom of Rachel Corrie in 2003. These resolutions were supported each with over 70% of the student body, and were followed by a unanimous resolution of the Geoduck Student Union calling on the Board of Trustees to provide a full disclosure of Evergreen’s investments, enact a public divestment plan from Israel, and declare Evergreen as a CAT-free campus.

THE FOUNDATION:

The 2010 Divestment campaign concerned itself mainly with the functions of The Evergreen State College Foundation. As a public college, TESC gets its budget approved in the Washington legislature every two years and is governed by rules of state and public funds. Because of this, Evergreen established an internal yet independent entity to receive and collect private donations. The money collected by the Foundation is split across various pools– some student-facing like scholarships, much towards sustaining advertising for the college– then invested in markets to increase the value of the funds. The Foundation’s annual reports from FY2011 to FY2022 are available on Evergreen’s website (evergreen.edu/foundation/foundation-annual-reports). 

The Evergreen State College Foundation’s endowment has been invested into the University of Washington’s Consolidated Endowment Fund (CEF) since 2003. This has meant that UW controls the investment portfolio shared by the Evergreen State College, whose HB1640 Private Investment Disclosure Requirement as of December 31, 2023 still features several corporations and funds with clear ties to Israel that invest significantly in the Israeli economy. In 2010, the College had a little over $5 million dollars invested into UW’s CEF. In the latest 2022 report, TESC had invested around $15 million dollars into what is now UW’s over $4 billion dollar portfolio. No documentation of where Evergreen’s endowment contribution is invested, and this fact motivated the GSU’s demand for audit and disclosure.

Right: Commencement banner drop, 2014 from tescdivest.blogspot.com

THE RESPONSE: 

Summer reached the Evergreen State College as the community waited for an administrative response to the student resolutions. On August 17th, the office of the Israeli Consul General visited TESC administrators to “investigate the alleged anti-Semetic atmosphere on campus” (February 10, 2011 CPJ). Vice President of Student Affairs at the time Art Constantino commented to the 2010 CPJ, “‘I’ve got to imagine he would not drop by otherwise if it wasn’t for [the resolutions]… So I just assumed that was part of the reason he was there.” According to a referenced public records request in the May 5th, 2011 CPJ, assurances were made by the Vice President’s Office of Student Affairs that divestment was “off the table” to the right wing pro-Israel group Stand With Us. 

In the following September, President Les Purce sent an email to the GSU in response to the student resolutions, asserting that “as an academic institution, the college has a fundamental reason to refrain from taking political positions.” He did not claim any necessity for the college to honor the student resolutions, and implied that the only role of intervention Evergreen could make was educational. He also posited that he, as president, had no influence over the will of the Foundation’s governing board and that the investment of any public endowment funds would be not in his jurisdiction but of the Vice President of Finance and Administration. 

Students of the 2010-2011 year and the 2011-2012 years fought hard to combat the labyrinth of inaction that had been set by leadership. The President had claimed he had no power to examine divestment and was unwilling to support BDS, so the Board of Trustees was pursued instead. Consistent email campaigns, street theater, disruptions of TESC fundraisers, and rallies were invoked, demanding that they change College bylaws to bring the resolutions to the Board of Trustee meeting agenda. Student actions, such as the infamous Apartheid Checkpoint wall (April 7, 2011 CPJ), were met with silent Student Code sanctions and threatened criminal charges. After months of pressure, the Board of Trustees claimed that they had delegated responsibility over college operations, including finance and divestment, to the office of the President so they could not form a position on divestment. Purce had assured the GSU that the VP for Finance and Administration would handle an examination and language update to the Socially Responsible Investment Policy, a process completed through committee. The policy-forming committee had no guarantees for student seats, and this researcher has found no record of community input before its implementation in 2013.  The policy was crafted to include a new mandate for an investment committee to meet at least once every three years with two faculty and student representatives A guarantee for three  On historical reflection, many TESC community members saw these evasive maneuvers for what they were: weaponized incompetence and a strategic effort to misdirect organizing.

SOME REFLECTIONS:

Despite representing that Evergreen held an overwhelming majority in support of divestment for Palestine, the TESC DIVEST! resolutions of 2010 were never transformed into the policy changes that would support divestment from Israeli apartheid and occupation. A combination of outright political repression and bureaucratic misdirection confused a generation of enrolled and employed Greeners who had wanted to believe that their college would act in good faith on their behalf. In the 14 years since the resolutions first passed, various generations of students have brought back the fight for divestment, and for an official declaration of a CAT-free campus, such as in 2016 when CAT equipment was observed in the construction of Purce Hall. 

TESC DIVEST! is then understood as a cautionary tale that deeply informs, but is distinct from, the current divestment campaign in 2024. As a fight intensely focused on existing systems of funds and expenditures, those fighting for divestment must navigate hostile institutional arrangements that it must be prepared to out-maneuver. Far more tangible power has been demanded, conceded, and placed into the currently enrolled and employed Greener community than at any other point in the divestment struggle’s history. Still, the ease of erasing TESC DIVEST!’s history reminds our current populations that this is an elastic fight, and collective organization and deliberate attention will be needed to see it through. 

The chant “Not another nickel, Not another dime! No more money for Israel’s crimes” proliferated on campus during the Evergreen Gaza Solidarity Encampment rallies at the end of April. It is vital for us to understand the material scale of Evergreen’s $15 million dollar endowment against the divestment campaigns at universities with multi billion dollar sponsorships and investments into corporations that support the genocide and occupation of Palestine. Yet revisiting the history of TESC DIVEST! makes clear that divestment is known as a tangible threat to Israel, and that it is a valuable fight to wage anywhere. We must remember that while the particular fight for divestment takes place within Evergreen’s systems, there are many more actions for Palestinian solidarity beyond divestment, beyond our college, that must be fulfilled.