University of Maryland students voted in support of University System of Maryland Foundation and University of Maryland College Park Foundation divesting from certain defense, military and security companies in the SGA election earlier this month.
Fifty-five percent of voters, or 3,260 people, voted in favor of divestment, the Student Government Association announced Friday.
The ballot question called on the SGA to begin lobbying the university system foundation and UMCP foundation to divest from companies, such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, that may be “implicated” in human rights violations in places such as Palestine, Myanmar and the Philippines.
The SGA passed an emergency bill on March 5 to hold the nonbinding campuswide referendum during the election held from April 1 to 3. The ballot question comes months after more than 650 students signed a petition urging SGA to add the question to its 2025 election ballot, The Diamondback previously reported.
[UMD SGA commission finds students were bribed to vote unfavorably on divestment referendum]
This university’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter circulated the petition, which came just after a nearly identical SGA resolution failed to advance in November.
Discussions about divestment have increased at this university since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which it killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage, according to the Associated Press. Israel declared war on Hamas the next day and its military forces have killed more than 51,000 Palestinians since, the Associated Press reported Friday.
Israel and Hamas reached a temporary ceasefire deal in January, which expired on March 2, according to the Associated Press. Israel has since resumed its offensive in Gaza, the Associated Press reported.
[UMD students will vote on divestment from defense companies in April’s SGA election]
Similar divestment resolutions failed to pass last spring and in 2017 and 2019.
Last week, the SGA’s elections commission determined that students were bribed to vote unfavorably on the divestment referendum, The Diamondback previously reported.
This university wrote in a statement to The Diamondback that the results of the referendum have no bearing on the operations or policies of the university or its foundations.
“This referendum was led and undertaken by undergraduate students, as is their right to do so in accordance with SGA policies and procedures,” the statement read.
The university system deferred to this university in response to The Diamondback’s request for comment on Friday about the referendum results.
The university system foundation and the UMCP foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This story has been updated.
