The University of Maryland SGA failed to advance a resolution Wednesday that called on the University System of Maryland Foundation and the University of Maryland College Park Foundation to withdraw investments from certain security, defense and military companies.
More than 400 students packed into Stamp Student Union’s Colony Ballroom on Wednesday for the Student Government Association’s general body meeting. Legislators listened to an hour of student testimony about the resolution before evaluating whether to uphold or overturn an unfavorable committee report in a closed-session discussion.
The SGA’s civic engagement and governmental affairs committee voted against the divestment resolution on Monday. On Wednesday, the SGA’s general body voted 19-17-2 to uphold the committee’s unfavorable report, which prevented the resolution from reaching a final vote.
If the resolution reached a final vote and passed, the SGA would have begun lobbying this university, the UMCP foundation, the University System of Maryland and the university system foundation to divest from companies “engaged in human rights violations” in places including Palestine, Guatemala and Myanmar. The resolution specified defense companies such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.
[UMD SGA committee votes unfavorably on divestment resolution]
The SGA failed to advance another divestment resolution in April. Other divestment resolutions were struck down in 2017 and 2019.
University president Darryll Pines told The Diamondback on Thursday that this university does not always have control over decisions regarding some resolutions.
“Students pass resolutions in the SGA all the time. Not all of them affect what the administration does,” Pines said. “But we care about what students care about, and we totally encourage them to exercise their rights to pass legislation and … resolutions that they care about.”
In an Oct. 22 statement to The Diamondback, this university wrote, “any Student Government Association debate of the proposed [divestment] resolution will be conducted and led by students, and the outcome will have no bearing on university policy or practice.”
Calls for divestment have increased since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and took about 250 people hostage, the Associated Press reported. Israel declared war on Hamas the next day and its military has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza since, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
During Wednesday’s meeting, dozens of students were randomly selected to testify on the resolution.
Eight students spoke in favor of the resolution and 40 spoke in opposition. Supporters of the resolution said the SGA must advocate for cutting this university’s ties to human rights violations. Opponents said the resolution would divide the campus community rather than lead to significant change.
[UMD students attend SGA committees in anticipation of divestment resolution]
Sophomore material sciences and engineering major Grace Herschberg said in her testimony that the divestment resolution would only harm the campus community, since it would have no bearing on university policy.
Eitan Linsider in his testimony urged SGA legislators to oppose the “counterproductive” and “targeting” resolution.
“We’ve seen two passionate groups on our campus thrown in a room together, time and time again, encouraging tensions to rise, instead of trying to bring us together,” the senior computer science major said.
In testimony at Wednesday’s meeting, junior chemical engineering major Mason Loeffler said he sees this university’s connection with “war profiteers” first-hand as an engineering student. Loeffler added that it pains him to think of the human rights violations “committed with devices of war” that companies such as Lockheed Martin produce.
Lola Akintoye, a senior economics major, said she testified to the SGA because of her “desire to protect human life.” She referenced thousands of people being killed across the world in places such as Palestine, Sudan and Haiti.
“These are not some conflicts far away, unrelated to us,” she said in her testimony. “It is not enough to pay less service to the dead. We must fight to protect the living.”
After the SGA’s decision on Wednesday, this university’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter wrote in a statement to The Diamondback that “genocide should not be controversial.”
“Any opposition to divesting from weapons manufacturers that profit off of genocide is rooted in dehumanization and xenophobia towards Palestinian people,” the statement read.
This university’s Jewish Student Union wrote in a statement to The Diamondback that the resolution aimed to “villainize Israel.” The student organization is “relieved” the SGA chose the “side of morality” by upholding an unfavorable committee report for a divestment resolution for the second semester in a row, the statement read.
“We strive for unity and inclusion, aiming to create an environment where everyone — regardless of faith or ethnicity — feels a sense of belonging,” the statement read. “This [resolution] would only harm that vision.”
The university system and the university system foundation did not respond to The Diamondback’s request for comment. The UMCP foundation deferred to this university.
