“If we say that divestment will have little effect other than complacency, then it only follows that we believe the alternative will do.” – Whitman College Pioneer, November 6, 1986, in reference to South African apartheid 

As part of the national Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement, Whitman Students for Justice in Palestine and the Student Action Coalition have called for the college to divest from the military-industrial complex. On November 29th, 2023, WJSP submitted a proposal to the Board of Trustees. Their request was simple: 

Immediate action to begin the process of divestment from companies that manufacture arms, aid in the security apparatus that governments around the world use to harm oppressed people, aid in the physical destruction of communities, and provide technology services to apartheid states like Israel (From WSJP Divestment Proposal, 2023).

Whitman College is no stranger to divestment. In 2018, Whitman committed to divesting from fossil fuels, showing that the college is not against making ethically-informed financial decisions. However, the student proposal for weapons divestment was rejected. In solidarity with student efforts, the faculty submitted a motion passed by supermajority in May of 2025 endorsing divestment. It states:

The Faculty of Whitman College calls upon the Board of Trustees to develop a strategy to divest from companies that provide arms and/or military technology to states that engage in crimes such as apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, as defined under international law. Based on the principles of shared governance, we ask the Trustees to establish a divestment committee in Fall 2025 that includes faculty, students, and staff representatives (From Faculty Motion, 2025).

It is critical to note that the motion only called for active conversations surrounding a divestment strategy rather than immediate action. On December 22, 2025, after an unusually long period of deliberation, the faculty received an email from the Board. Rather than exploring options for divestment, the Board proposed a working group focused on “Endowment Engagement.” 

Consisting of students, faculty, and Trustees all approved by the Board Chair and President, the group intends to “deepen shared understanding of Whitman’s endowment.” The group will create a ”a range of specific mechanisms through which community members may periodically…offer input to trustees on broad themes or questions related to investments.” Members are expected to abandon “individual political or ideological agendas” in pursuit of the college’s goals (From Board Endowment Group 2025). Notably absent from the Board’s proposal for endowment education is divestment. Instead, they want to talk about how the endowment works, distracting us from their unwillingness to take effective action. This group would be a waste of the colleges’ time, resources, and money.

The Endowment Divestment Policy adopted by the Board in November of 2023 states:

Instances so extreme that they shock the conscience, such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, unjustified disregard of profound environmental degradation and other wide-scale acts of injustice, may call for an extraordinary response. It is in this context that the Board sets forth the basis on which it will consider divestment from endowment portfolio investments that associate it with such above-described heinous activities (From Board Divestment Policy 2023).

Does the genocide in Palestine not “shock the conscience”? Israel’s endless butchery cannot be denied; its crimes are, at the very minimum, “widescale acts of injustice”, and yet the Trustees remain indifferent. This working group is a refusal by the Board to comply with their own policy and address our demand for transparent and ethical investment. To cooperate with this working group would be to abandon the principled position that divestment must always be on the agenda.

The message from the Board is clear: it has turned its back on their existing commitments and shunned the voices of students and faculty. The faculty, on February 11th, passed a motion rejecting the Board’s toothless proposal for “endowment education” and halting nominations to the group until divestment is put back on the agenda, a motion WSJP fully supports.

We as the Whitman Students for Justice in Palestine remain committed to divestment. We will not accept half-measures. Free Palestine within our lifetime.

Olivia Mercado

Genevieve Silence

Eva Mangahas

Katherine Finger

Artemis Gilbert

Jannah Katish

Poppy Lasher

Lina Cousineau Aguero

Bronwen Pritchard

Emily Doak

Mayah Grover