MIDORI DAVIS | Editor-in-Chief
Students calling for the university to divest companies doing business with Israel met with WSU Vancouver leadership over the summer and began planning to bring the conversation to the WSU Foundation, which manages the university system’s portfolio of investments. The students seek to meet with the WSU Foundation this month.
College students across the nation have been protesting against the lethal war in Palestine, calling for a ceasefire since last October. WSU Vancouver’s own students have put up signs, held rallies, and spoken to the Board of Regents, questioning the university’s investments in firms and companies tied to Israel.
The conversation was facilitated by student protestor Kiara Reyes Ramirez over Zoom in July as a Q&A session. Chancellor Mel Netzhammer and Vice Chancellors Domanic Vanthom and Obie Ford answered the students’ questions.
“Does WSU have any moral or ethical practices when deciding who it will partner with? If so, where does it draw the line?” asked student protestor Neely Ellis.
Netzhammer answered, “Yes, I would think that moral and ethical considerations are paramount… Part of what [WSU President Kirk Schulz] has committed to is being more transparent about our investments generally, both in the WSU Foundation and the holding of state dollars that we have… We are still in a discovery stage of finding out that information.”
Sead Sejfovic, another student protestor, asked about obstacles the students have faced in requesting space on the campus quad to put up signs. Clubs can reserve space for signage on the quad for up to one week, but a club that joined the effort to keep the Palestine signs up last spring was denied. “I don’t have an immediate answer for you on that piece around the signage, but as I said, we need to enforce our policies without regard to content, and I just want to make sure that our policies were being fairly approved, and if they’re not, we will take measures to make sure that doesn’t happen in the fall semester,” said Netzhammer.
The students asked Netzhammer and the vice chancellors if they could help arrange a meeting for them with Schulz and Mike Connell, vice president of advancement and CEO of the WSU Foundation.
“That is something that I would certainly be willing to arrange and make happen,” said Netzhammer. “I think I can open some of those doors for you. It will happen, and I will be tireless in making sure it does happen because that is something WSU has committed to