[[link removed]]

WEAPONS, FOSSIL FUELS, ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS  
[[link removed]]


 

Dan McGlynn
June 12, 2024
The Shoestring
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ UMass’ Investment Portfolio: As UMass backs out of a commitment
to consider divestment, a Shoestring investigation reveals its
endowment has millions indirectly invested in defense contractors and
other entities targeted by student activists. _

Multiple police agencies arrested over 130 protestors at UMass on May
7 at a demonstration demanding divestment from weapons contractors in
solidarity with the people of Gaza. , Shelby Lee

 

The University of Massachusetts Foundation — the private non-profit
corporation that manages the public university’s endowment — has
tens of millions of dollars in indirect investments in dozens of
companies on a list [[link removed]] of firms
with ties to war, occupations, and border policing around the globe,
federal filings
[[link removed]]
show. 

The endowment also has indirect holdings in fossil fuel giants,
spyware companies, and Israeli banks that Human Rights Watch and the
United Nations have cited as directly financing illegal settlement
expansion in the occupied West Bank.

The Shoestring tracked these investments through the federal
Securities and Exchange Commission in the wake of a tumultuous spring
on campus, which culminated in the mass arrest of more than 130
protestors at UMass Amherst demanding disclosure of investments and
divestment from companies profiting from war or the occupation of
Palestinian land. 

Administrators had promised to bring the activists’ proposal for
divestment to the university’s Board of Trustees, but at the
board’s June 7 meeting, the proposal was absent from the agenda,
prompting the resignation of student Trustee Chris Brady.

The UMass Amherst chapter of the group Students for Justice in
Palestine has echoed the demands of other SJP chapters globally in a
student movement that has drawn comparisons to the anti-war activism
of the 1960s and the divestment campaign against apartheid South
Africa of the 1970s and ’80s. 

Disclosure of endowment portfolios and divestment from war profiteers
has been a common demand at pro-Palestine protests on college campuses
across the United States this year, in part because finding out just
where a university’s endowment has invested can be difficult. In
UMass’ case, the UMass Foundation is a private corporation, which
means it isn’t subject to Massachusetts public records law, making
its holdings largely invisible to the public. However, institutional
investors who manage more than $100 million in assets must file
disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission, offering a
window into the investing practices of institutions like the UMass
Foundation, which has $1.31 billion in total assets, according to a
2023 report.
[[link removed]]

The campaign for divestment from war profiteers has not been the only
divestment campaign in recent years at UMass. For over a decade,
students and faculty at the university have been pushing for
divestment from fossil fuels, resulting in the Board of Trustees
voting to divest from direct holdings in companies linked to climate
change in 2016. The university touted
[[link removed].]
that decision as a step forward in addressing the threat of the
climate emergency.

Yet, indirect holdings in fossil fuels remain, according to filings
the university has made with the SEC. And faculty members who have
been pushing for full divestment say it’s unclear whether UMass had
any direct holdings in fossil fuels to begin with. Siloed away in a
private foundation, the university continues to invest heavily in
every industry that student movements have targeted for divestment in
recent years, prompting members of the university community at all
levels to question UMass’ commitment to ethics of transparency and
shared governance.

The UMass Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.

FOLLOWING THE MONEY

A filing made with the SEC on May 9 reveals a portion of the UMass
endowment’s holdings.

The foundation’s “form 13F,” as it’s known, details over $240
million in investments across four exchange-traded funds, known as
ETFs. An ETF is a collection of assets that investment firms can sell
like a conventional stock. The UMass Foundation has purchased shares
in three ETFs from iShares, which the investment company BlackRock
manages, and one ETF from the firm Vanguard.

Using a tool [[link removed]] created by
“Investigate” — a project of the anti-war group American Friends
Service Committee meant to assist those probing the holdings of
certain ETFs, mutual funds, and other pooled investments — The
Shoestring was able to break down the holdings of the four funds
listed in the SEC filing. The screening tool is updated monthly,
according to an AFSC representative.

According to the screening tool, the four ETFs in which the university
purchased shares collectively have almost $64 billion invested into 71
companies linked to “mass incarceration
[[link removed]], military occupations
[[link removed]], and the border and
surveillance industrie [[link removed]]s”
across the world. Some of those companies include: Palantir, a
CIA-backed
[[link removed]]
company that sells AI surveillance systems to U.S. police departments
and the Israeli military; Elbit Systems, one of Israel’s largest
weapons manufacturers; and CoreCivic, which is among the world’s
largest private prison companies.

The Shoestring independently found that as of June 7, one of the ETFs
has over $232 million invested into five Israeli banks that Human
Rights Watch
[[link removed]]
and the United Nations
[[link removed]]
have flagged as operating in, or directly financing, illegal
settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. The BlackRock ETF also
has holdings in companies like Mivne Real Estate that are accused of
selling properties in illegal settlements. The UMass Foundation has
almost $27 million invested in this ETF as of May 9, records show.

UMass SJP has cited companies on the Boycott Divest Sanction
movement’s focus list
[[link removed]] in their
divestment proposal submitted to the UMass Board of Trustees on May 7.
BDS, which is a Palestinian-led movement, has said these companies are
complicit in the Israeli government’s human rights violations,
targeting them for boycotts. All four ETFs listed in the
university’s SEC filing have holdings in companies on the BDS focus
list. They include the infrastructure conglomerate Siemens AG, French
insurance giant AXA S.A., tech companies Hewlett Packard Enterprise
and HP, sportswear brand Puma, and their respective subsidiaries or
parent companies.

Using investment indexes from the webpages for each ETF, The
Shoestring found that the four funds have billions of dollars invested
into these companies. One of these web pages was last updated on April
30, with the other three last updated on June 6. 

A fund screening tool
[[link removed]]
from As You Sow, a non-profit aimed at promoting sustainable
investing, shows that all four ETFs in the SEC filing also have
hundreds of billions invested into fossil fuels. The screening tool
rates the environmental sustainability of the funds based on their
ties to fossil fuels on a letter scale. Two of the funds received a D
score and the other two received an F score.

A similar tool [[link removed]], also from As You Sow,
rates funds based on their ties to war profiteering. The four ETFs
have hundreds of billions invested into weapons manufacturers, some of
which make cluster munitions, white phosphorus, and depleted uranium
rounds. That earned them all a D rating from the organization.

UMASS REFUSES TO CONSIDER DIVESTMENT

Chris Brady describes himself as an “institutional guy.”

After being elected as UMass Amherst student trustee in March 2023,
Brady hoped to effect change within the shared governance framework
designed to give students a say in the university’s operations. He
saw himself as a liaison between university leadership and students
pursuing divestment amid Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which
has killed at least 37,000
[[link removed]]
since October.

When students set up a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus on May 7,
the activists demanded the university disclose its investments and
divest from weapons manufacturers and companies on the BDS focus list.
Brady drafted a divestment proposal echoing these demands that he
submitted to Chancellor Javier Reyes. He said that Reyes assured him
that the proposal would be considered by the Board of Trustees during
its June meeting.

Brady called the opportunity to present the case for divestment “the
most important thing I’ve ever done in my life.” 

Shortly before police arrested 134 demonstrators at the encampment, it
was representatives of the university’s newly formed Demonstration
Response and Safety Team who addressed the protestors with a megaphone
telling them to disperse. The administrators told those gathered that
Brady’s divestment proposal was on the agenda for the Board of
Trustees meeting in June and that the UMass Foundation received, and
would review, the divestment proposal, according to UMass’ own
timeline
[[link removed]]
of the demonstration.

However, three days before the meeting, the board’s secretary
informed Brady that the proposal wasn’t on the agenda, according to
an email he shared with The Shoestring. He described the experience as
“crushing.” He said he had spent weeks asking about the status of
a divestment proposal, only to be met with silence.

The UMass Board of Trustees did not respond to a request for comment.

Brady also received an email from UMass General Counsel David Lowy two
days before the board meeting. In the email, which Brady provided to
The Shoestring, Lowy claimed that the proposal was “withdrawn on its
own terms.” Lowy cited the second paragraph of the May 7 proposal
addressed to Reyes, which stipulated that “if at any point you
choose to arrest or sanction students, this offer for dialogue and
negotiation is off the table.”

However, during a May 14 special meeting of the Faculty Senate where
Reyes and UMass Amherst Police Chief Tyrone Parham answered questions
about the encampment response, Reyes reiterated the claim that the
divestment proposal was on the agenda, according to the meeting
minutes.
[[link removed]] 

The Faculty Senate meeting came seven days after students and faculty
were arrested.

Brady said Reyes approached him following the Senate meeting to tell
him they would discuss the upcoming agenda item further. Brady said
that conversation never happened.

The Shoestring caught up with Reyes at an unrelated university event
on June 2 to ask him about the divestment proposal and no-confidence
motions against him from students and faculty. He declined to comment,
deferring to university spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski.

Blaguszewski, in turn, referred The Shoestring to the UMass
Foundation, which did not respond to an interview request.
Blaguszewski also pointed The Shoestring to a “University Statements
on War in Gaza and Campus Protests
[[link removed]]” page on
the UMass Amherst website.

The email from Lowy informed Brady that he was allotted a speaking
opportunity at the Board of Trustees meeting on June 7 to discuss
divestment. During his speech, Brady said board members turned off
their cameras, shuffled in their seats, or otherwise appeared not to
be listening. Brady said his speech was cut after three minutes, with
the board citing “time constraints.” He emailed his resignation
letter to the board after the meeting.

SHARED GOVERNANCE

Kevin Young, a history professor at UMass and a member of the group
Faculty for Justice in Palestine, argues that the lack of transparency
with UMass’ endowment and the roadblocks activists have run into
calling for divestment are by design. To Young, they are part of the
university’s subversion of shared governance.

Brady agreed, claiming the student trustee position felt
“deliberately hard to navigate.” 

“It feels like everything needs to be greenlit by the real
adults,” he said.

Following successful no-confidence votes against Reyes from the
Student Government Association
[[link removed]],
faculty
[[link removed]],
and the Graduate Employees Organization
[[link removed]] after the
encampment arrests, UMass system President Marty Meehan and UMass
Board of Trustees Chair Stephen Karam reaffirmed
[[link removed]]
their support for the chancellor.

Reacting to their statements, Young said it “speaks to the
bankruptcy of those leaders themselves and to the undemocratic nature
of the university system.” He called the idea of shared governance
at UMass “farcical.”

Young highlighted the fact that unelected leaders like Meehan, Karam,
and the rest of the Board of Trustees are the only ones who could
decide to fire Reyes, while majorities of faculty and students voting
for Reyes’ ouster remain symbolic gestures.

Young said Brady’s inability to get a divestment proposal on the
agenda, even though he is one of the few elected members of the board,
is evidence of the intentional undermining of student power. 

“I thought the way to make change was to work within the system,”
Brady said.

Now, Brady says if he were a student activist or trustee pursuing
change in the coming school year, he would suggest “never accepting
a meeting with Chancellor Reyes or ever trying to work with the Board
of Trustees.”

Rüya Hazeyen, a leader in UMass SJP, shared Brady’s distrust of
university leadership. She argues Reyes and other administrators
negotiated in bad faith on May 7.

Hazeyen said the biggest lesson SJP has learned is that “closed-door
meetings and even just meetings in general with administrators are
never going to bring us what we want.”

To both Brady and Young, an intentional hampering of shared governance
extends to attempts at divestment. Both mentioned a divestment vote
that passed through the Student Government Association but, like the
no-confidence motions, holds no inherent power.

Young arrived at UMass in 2015 during a push for fossil fuel
divestment from students. After the Board of Trustees voted in favor
of divesting from direct holdings in fossil fuels, the university
celebrated the move, with Meehan saying in a statement that he was
“proud of the students and the entire University community for
putting UMass at the forefront of a vital movement, one that has been
important to me throughout my professional life.”

Yet, without an accessible way to see where the UMass Foundation
invested its money, students and faculty leading the movement were
left in the dark, unsure if the university even had direct holdings in
fossil fuels in the first place, Young said.

Young called UMass’ widely publicized climate initiatives from years
past “essentially stillborn.”

Young submitted a divestment proposal for indirect fossil fuel
holdings through the foundation’s Socially Responsible Investment
Advisory Committee, though he said its effect on investment practices
remains unclear. He submitted the proposal in April and said he
hasn’t received a response.

A document detailing the principles of the committee, which was
established in 2014 as an official divestment channel, says it
“shall address allegations of social injury resulting from
Foundation investments,” but also clarifies that the “objective
for the Endowment Fund is to achieve the highest long-term investment
return on investment assets.”

“FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITIES”

Young said administrators and board members have responded to
divestment calls by claiming they can’t “disentangle” themselves
from ETFs and other pooled investments that have holdings in
“offensive” companies.

Andrew Montes, the director of digital strategies at As You Sow, said
that the UMass Foundation has other options, with many ETFs and other
funds avoiding fossil fuels and weapons manufacturers. Dozens of funds
with little to no links to defense and fossil fuels are listed on the
As You Sow’s “Weapons Free Funds” and “Fossil Free Funds”
indexes.

“Fiduciary responsibilities are sometimes raised to argue against
reducing exposure to unsustainable investments,” Montes told The
Shoestring in an email. “The state of the research today says that
sustainable investing does not mean sacrificing returns — in fact,
it can mean outperforming benchmarks.”

Hazeyen sees divestment as a tangible demand that can put pressure on
companies linked to war.

“I think the problem is that a lot of people think that we’re out
on the UMass grounds just protesting and sitting in without these set
goals,” Hazeyen said.

Hazeyen sees the divestment push as a “small part” of a greater
effort that echoes the struggle against South African apartheid in the
1980s. To Hazeyen, divestment at a prominent university like UMass
Amherst could create a domino effect, with other universities
following suit. 

“It implicates all of us,” she said of the university’s
financial ties.

DAN MCGLYNN IS AN INDEPENDENT REPORTER STUDYING JOURNALISM AT UMASS
AMHERST AND A SUMMER INTERN FOR THE SHOESTRING. HE CAN BE REACHED AT
[email protected].

THE SHOESTRING IS COMMITTED TO BRINGING YOU AD-FREE CONTENT. WE RELY
ON READERS TO SUPPORT OUR WORK! YOU CAN SUPPORT INDEPENDENT NEWS FOR
WESTERN MASS BY VISITING OUR DONATE PAGE.

* public disinvestment
[[link removed]]
* UMass
[[link removed]]
* Gaza
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]