(Divest mini-zine) U-M is a Hedge Fund with a University Attached

Text: U-M is a Hedge Fund with a University Attached

WHAT IS THE ENDOWMENT?

The U-M endowment is a collection of over 12,500 funds managed by the University's Investment office, under the supervision of the Board of Regents. These funds are packages of donations designated toward specific uses, but they're all managed in a single account known as the University Endowment Fund. U-M holds $18 billion in its endowment-- making it the third largest endowment among public universities and the ninth largest university endowment overall.

Through its $18 billion endowment, the University of Michigan is supporting the genocide in Gaza and the war and military machinery colonizing Palestine.

TROUBLING CONNECTIONS

Skydio is a Silicon Valley-based drone company that in the three weeks since October 7 has "sent more than 100 drones to the Israeli Defense Forces, with more to come," according to an executive.

Attenti is an Israeli prisons surveillance company that, through an $18 million contract, is the sole provider of ankle monitors to the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Motorola Solutions produces surveillance products that are used for Cop City Atlanta and Atlanta's Operation Shield, in U.S. prisons, at the U.S.-Mexico border, and in checkpoints and illegal settlements in the West Bank.

...AND MORE IN THE ENDOWMENT GUIDE

DIVESTMENT IS OUR IMPERATIVE TOWARDS PALESTINE

Divesting from Israel is a powerful way to hold it accountable and stop sponsoring genocide. The settler colonial state of Israel is acutely unstable both politically and economically, as its existence rests on the erasure of Palestinians. With the support of America, Israel has continually sought to eliminate this instability through segregation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Palestinians. In addition to financial and military aid from the West, Israel must also maintain investors' confidence to sustain its economy, and complete the occupation of Palestine. Therefore, while Israel's task is to project stability and keep investors calm, our job is to uncover the cracks in the Israeli economy and force a major investor (U-M) to withdraw.

WHY DIVESTMENT WORKS

Since 2002, the Regents have repeatedly said that divestment from Israel is impossible. But divestment worked to end South African apartheid, and it will work again. In the late 1980s, the Southern African Liberation Committee (SALC) and other student groups at U-M were part of an international wave of protests that demanded corporations and universities divest from apartheid South Africa. The student-led movement led to the passing of Michigan's Public Act 512, which forced public universities like U-M to divest in 1984.

By making apartheid, occupation, and war financially infeasible, we can mount serious pressure against Israel, creating the conditions for Palestinian liberation.

WHAT COULD U-M LOOK LIKE IF WE DIVESTED?

Our endowment is controlled by an investment officer from Wall Street who only answers to the Board of Regents. What would the university look like if the endowment were under democratic control?

Funds currently used for war, apartheid, and genocide could instead be used to:

• reduce tuition for all students

• pay all university workers a fair and livable wage

• meet Black students' long-running demands for increased Black student enrollment

• create an unarmed, care-based alternative to campus police for a safer campus over all

• increase access to the university health services, including mental health care

• offer more and bigger scholarships, especially to underprivileged students

• create infrastructure to make our campuses more accessible

• support local businesses in Flint, Dearborn, and Ann Arbor

WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR UNIVERSITY TO LOOK LIKE?

Despite the fact that the U-M Faculty Senate recently passed a resolution calling for divestment and that CSG has passed similar resolutions in the past, U-M has chosen inaction either by ignoring resolutions or canceling student votes. Our University is also actively choosing to criminalize pro-Palestinian activism by arresting student protestors.

To fight for the future of U-M that we want, we're running the Divest! Don't Arrest People's Referendum. DDA is a grassroots, tri-campus, all U-M, referendum that calls for the Regents to divest endowment holdings from Israel and to drop the charges against pro-Palenstinian activists. All members of the U-M community are allowed to vote, including students, faculty, and staff.

U-M IS COMPLICIT IN GENOCIDE

SCAN THE QR CODE (or follow this link) TO REGISTER FOR THE PEOPLE'S REFERENDUM

-- DIVEST! -- FREE PALESTINE! --