The following are two messages from students on the Investment and Grant Policy Disappearing Task Forces following their first meetings. To view the task force charges look here.
INVESTMENT POLICY DISAPPEARING TASK FORCE:
The Investment Policy Disappearing Task Force, as outlined in the MOU signed on April 30, is charged with proposing revisions to Evergreen’s investment policies and addressing divestment from companies that profit from gross human rights violations and the occupation of Palestine.
The first meeting of our DTF was held on June 5 and focused on examining the charge and setting up logistics. We are set to continue meeting over the summer to begin our work researching Evergreen’s investments and drafting new policies.
The students of the Investment Policy DTF are fully committed to the goal of complete divestment from such companies, so that Evergreen may end its complicity in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
In the 1970s and 80s, 155 colleges in the US and Canada divested over $700 billion from apartheid in South Africa (The Africa Fund). Evergreen was one of those colleges. We are learning from historical divestment campaigns, including past student movements demanding Evergreen’s divestment from Israel, as we begin our work. Divestment is an institutional process that can take years; for instance, the University of Michigan agreed to divest from South Africa in 1978, but divestment was not fully completed until 1988 (Michigan Public NPR).
The timeline of our work within the DTF is aggressive compared to historical divestment campaigns, with our proposals set to be submitted by Spring 2025 and the divestment policy fully implemented by the college by Spring 2026. We will do everything in our power to speed up this process even further. Furthermore, this work will not be possible without collaboration with the Evergreen student body and broader Olympia community. Part of our process will be to create channels of dialogue between the community and the DTF, so that our work remains transparent and is always informed by community input.
As a start, please do not hesitate to email us at investmentsdtf@protonmail.com with questions, concerns, or any resources that you think may be helpful. Follow @TESCDivest on Instagram for updates and information on how to get involved in the movement!
GRANT ACCEPTANCE POLICY DISAPPEARING TASK FORCE
We, the students of the TESC Grant Acceptance Policy DTF, go to work with the goal of securing institutional divestment and are charged with creating a policy that restricts the college’s ability to accept grants deemed socially irresponsible. This is important to ensure that our college is not complicit in furthering the single story of the Zionist narrative which materially supports the occupation of Palestinian land, and the displacement and murder of Palestinian people.
The Memorandum of Understanding signed on April 30th mandated the creation of the Grant Acceptance Policy Disappearing Task Force. The DTF is charged with proposing critera for acceptance or refusal of grant monies based upon the purposes of the grant, with consideration for whether these grants contribute to or help enable “illegal occupations abroad, limit free speech, or support oppression of minorities.”
In our first official meeting on Wednesday June 12 from 3-4 PM, the agenda was followed closely. We reviewed our charges, bringing forth questions for John Carmichael regarding revision or addition to the charge posted on the Evergreen website. Originally, both DTF’s posted charges were supposed to be drafted collaboratively with students but the administration failed to open a dialogue before posting them, leaving the revision process to be undertaken by the members of our DTF. Outstanding questions include:
- The list of considerations to be evaluated when reviewing grants.
- Our DTF scope being broadened to apply not just to the purposes of a grant, but the source providing it.
- Whether the role of the alternate should include attendance of DTF meetings to ensure continuity of information in the case of them replacing acting students of the DTF.
Aside from the central questions surrounding the charge, we proposed the collaborative drafting of a community agreement for the members of the DTF to ensure that all voices have equal weight, which appeared to have unanimous buy-in, as did most other ideas shared in the meeting.
Our research and work must and will continue over the summer to meet the ambitiously outlined recommendation and implementation process, with recommendations due the President, the Faculty Agenda Committee, and the Board of Trustees by the end of Fall Quarter 2024. The President will then circulate these recommendations further and issue a response to the recommendations by Winter of 2025. This response will contain a clear statement of the process for final decisions allowing implementation to begin in Spring of 2025 and to be completed by Spring of 2026.As we work to ensure that our college is not complicit in the spread of oppressive ideologies such as Zionism which is being used to justify the Palestinian genocide, we also want to hold true to our values of community transparency and collaboration. To facilitate this, we have compiled a Linktree (https://linktr.ee/grantsdtf) of links and polices mentioned in Evergreen’s Fundraising Policy, specifically the Grants subsection, which we are asking the community to read through and provide feedback on by emailing us at grantsdtf@aol.com. Open to any and all questions or concerns, whether related to policy or not. Stay in the loop by following @yourCPJ and @TESCDivest on Instagram!
