The Student News Site of Oregon State University

The Daily Barometer

The Student News Site of Oregon State University

The Daily Barometer

The Student News Site of Oregon State University

The Daily Barometer

Letter to the Editor: Students United for Palestinian Rights issue demands for OSU to divest from Israel

General+Opinion+Graphic
Natalie Lutz
General Opinion Graphic
  • OSU will release a public statement calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
  • OSU has provided information about its direct investments on a public website and will update these disclosures annually. The OSU Foundation will provide detailed disclosure of its direct investments. This includes the investments that constitute each of the OSU Foundation’s mutual funds.
  • OSU will immediately amend the Oregon State University Public University Fund Investment Policy Article IX. Investment Restrictions to include the following:
    • Investments in issuers identified by the Investigate Project of The American Friends Service Committee 1, and/or the UN Human Rights Office Database Pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution 31/362
      • This restricted security list will be updated annually at calendar year-end and enforced for all new security purchases.
      • Exposures to issuers added to the Investigate Project of The American Friends Service Committee and/or the UN Database of complicit companies subsequent to purchase may be held to maturity.
  • The OSU Foundation will immediately adopt analogous investment policy as follows:
    • Restrict investments in issuers identified by the Investigate Project of The American Friends Service Committee 1, and/ox the UN Human Rights Office Database Pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution 31/362
      • This restricted security list will be updated annually at calendar year-end and enforced for all new security purchases.
      • Exposures to issuers added to the Investigate Project of The American Friends Service Committee and/or the UN Database of complicit companies subsequent to purchase may be held to maturity.
  • OSU will immediately adopt a policy for Procurement to include the following:
    • Business contracts are restricted to exclude those with companies identified by the UN Human Rights Office Database Pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution 31/362 or their
      • The restricted business contract list will be updated annually at calendar year-end and enforced for all new business contracts.
      • Current ongoing contracts with companies included on these lists will not be renewed.
  • OSU will establish a Task Force on Ethical Academic Partnership charged with evaluating the alignment with institutional research policies with institutional values and priorities, guided by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel guidelines, while maintaining compliance with relevant laws and regulations. The task force will make recommendations for any revisions to research ethics policies to the OSU Board of Trustees for their consideration and potential adoption. This task force will be launched by Fall 2024 and will involve active engagement with the OSU community at large. Majority of voting seats will be delegated to members chosen by the OSU Palestine Solidarity Coalition.
  • OSU has and will continue to vigorously protect the free expression and academic freedom rights of all OSU community members, including by resisting any attempt to interfere with the academic freedom of any faculty member. This also includes non-violent acts of civil disobedience, which OSU will not meet with law enforcement response or punishment via student code of conduct.
  • OSU’s policies in this area are among the most supportive of free expression in the country. The limits of these policies are narrowly tailored and clearly spelled out. Additionally, OSU staff will continue to counsel OSU students and faculty who wish to learn more about these policies and how to convey their opinions and viewpoints consistent with their responsibilities.
  • OSU will continue enforcing university policies prohibiting discriminatory and harassing conduct based on nationality, ethnicity or religion, including prohibited anti-Palestinian and anti-Semitic behavior.
  • OSU will not charge any student supporting or participating in the OSU Palestine Solidarity encampment with any violation of the student code of conduct, nor bring any academic consequences to those students for their support and participation. No criminal charges related to support for and/or participation in the OSU Palestine Solidarity encampment will be brought to anyone involved. Any present charges of students or faculty related to the encampment will be dropped, and if necessary, retroactively removed from University records.
  • Any disciplinary action or process brought upon an University employee for participating in or supporting the OSU Palestine Solidarity encampment will be rescinded, removed from record, and ameliorated.
  • The creation of curricula and courses of studies, such as Middle Eastern studies, involves shared governance partners and state agencies. We will share information about this process with members of the coalition. OSU will establish a Task Force charged with an effort to hire Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab faculty members in leading the development of an Arab studies component in the Ethnic Studies department curriculum. The end goal will be to have coursework within the Bacc Core Non-Western requirements that centers Palestinian history and resistance (within the last 200 years of context emphasized and included). This task force will be launched by Fall 2024 and will involve active engagement with the OSU community at large. Majority of voting seats will be delegated to members chosen by the OSU Palestine Solidarity Coalition.
  • OSU will provide full financial support to ten scholars from Palestine to complete their studies at Oregon State and receive their degree at OSU, either undergraduate or graduate.
  • OSU will host a panel in Fall term of 2024 of Palestinian and Arab scholars to talk about the history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the ongoing genocide. The university will develop, publish on a public website and publicize a “library guide” that contextualizes the complex and interwoven incidents of displacement and violence that  characterize the history and the present of Palestine, Israel and the region. This library guide will encourage OSU community members and the public to critically engage in topics of imperialism, colonialism, and oppression; to make connections of these topics to the OSU community; and to develop how these topics relate to themselves. Development of this library guide will begin in June 2024 with an intended publication date of fall term 2024. OSU will invite members selected by the OSU Palestine Solidarity Coalition to join in these efforts.
  • To contribute to the alleviation of civilian suffering, OSU will support a university effort to raise funds for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East which has worked consistently in Palestine since 1950 to provide “assistance for Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development pending a just solution to their plight.” OSU will invite members selected by the OSU Palestine Solidarity Coalition to join in this effort.
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