(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Divest now. Divest now.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: Listen to us.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Divest now.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Those chants from earlier this year are returning to college campuses now as the new academic year starts. The demands to trustees to drop investments involving Israel are echoed from school to school. Disclose. Divest. We will not stop. We will not rest. Which prompts the question, how? - what does that look like in practice? Todd Ely is a professor with the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver, and he joins us now. Welcome to the program.
TODD ELY: Thank you. Glad to be here.
RASCOE: Let's start with a hypothetical state school. If that school's leadership wanted to untie their finances from Israel because of its actions in Gaza, how would it go about doing that, given that it's funded in large part by taxpayers?
ELY: Well, first of all, for a public college or university, it's important to note that what is being asked to be divested is typically endowment funds. And those endowment funds don't represent public funding. They represent donations and bequests, you know, from alums and supporters of the institution over its whole entire history. The process itself has to begin with a decision. And that decision's going to be made - right? - by those in charge of the endowment. That group is going to very carefully consider the implications of divestment during likely a study period and then - right? - move forward with some sort of formal decision whether or not a policy should be put in place related to a specific divestment.
RASCOE: There's the - kind of the technical aspect of it, but then there's also the public response to it. For instance, Brown University in Rhode Island is private. Its board has agreed to hold a vote on divestment in October. And in response, 24 state attorneys general have sent a letter saying, quote, "adopting that proposal may require our states and others to divest from any university debt held by state pension plans and other investment vehicles and otherwise refrain from engaging with Brown." Do you think that's a valid threat?
ELY: It is. It's something for institutions to consider, for sure. States have quite a few laws that target the boycott, divest and sanction movement. And those laws sometimes apply only narrowly to maybe the state's pension system, or in other places, it might be more broad and apply to any procurement or contractual relationship with the state. And so, you know, these states are basically notifying - right? - Brown in this instance that they do have a dog in the fight and that they're willing - right? - to become involved.
And so what we're seeing is really kind of the escalation of some of the cultural rules (ph) that are already taking place, you know, at the state level related to socially responsible investing and environmental, social and governance investing kind of bubbling up - right? - and now attaching itself to this call from a private institution - in this case, in Rhode Island - to consider divestment.
RASCOE: Well, you mentioned that, obviously, there have been divestment campaigns before on college campuses, calls for divestment in fossil fuels. In the '80s, obviously, there was apartheid, and that campaign was successful in getting colleges to drop some of those investments, right?
ELY: It was. More than 100 institutions at that point had agreed to divest. The dollar amount was fairly substantial. Undoubtedly, the attention received from the protests helped elevate the issue, you know, increase awareness on the national agenda. But more broadly - right? - you can have a question about effectiveness of divestment. It's very difficult to measure the actual impact of these divestment campaigns and actions on the ultimate policy outcome.
RASCOE: With this push for divestment from Israel, is there a risk to students at all?
ELY: Yeah. The reality is, as of a few years ago, 65% of endowment spending was directed to student financial aid and academic programs. Really, student financial aid makes up about half of endowment spending. So any divestment action is just mechanically going to be closely tied to the student educational experience. It can also impact the attraction - right? - of additional funds to support those endowments that are used to really bolster the mission of the college or university.
RASCOE: That's Todd Ely of the University of Colorado Denver. Thank you so much for joining us.
ELY: My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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