<html><head></head><body><div style="font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px;"><div>As mentioned on today's News from Neptune:</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(66, 66, 66);"><font face="Calibri" size="3">DI blurb on referendum:</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(66, 66, 66);"><font face="Calibri" size="3">The only referendum that failed 3,133 to 1,700 reads
as follows: Shall the University divest, or withdraw investments, from
specified companies in the University’s BlackRock portfolio that actively
normalize, engage in, or fund human rights violations as defined by the United
Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights?</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3"> </font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">DI Letter from Cary Nelson et al.:</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Last month student senators listened attentively to two hours of
public comment from UIUC students and faculty. The topic: should there be yet
another referendum on this spring’s ballot about whether the university should
divest from companies doing business in Israel? That issue was widely debated
on campus last year, and the referendum was soundly defeated.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Although people spoke on both sides of the issue, on one point
speakers from both sides agreed. Jewish and Palestinian students alike
testified that they felt harassed and threatened by the hate speech the campus
debate generated. Campus discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can
be civil, but contests to win a forthcoming vote often are not. Competition
aimed at obtaining a victory involves passions of a different character.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">At the student government meeting, referendum advocates made their
strategy clear: they were going to reintroduce the referendum year after year.
A clear expression of student opinion opposing it in a democratic vote didn’t
matter. They were not giving up.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">That strategy has already been followed on other campuses,
sometimes with annual votes taking place for a decade. Arguing over a
divestment resolution as a result crowds out every other topic — from tuition
levels, to class size, to loan programs — that students care about and where
their advocacy can make a difference.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">On divestment, a campus vote amounts to empty symbolism. No Board
of Trustees is going to let students, faculty, or staff decide investment
policy. Investment policy is a Board fiduciary responsibility. A broad brush
condemnation of a series of companies, moreover, simply invites Board
dismissal.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Divestment is actually a complex subject that gets confused and
falsified by the resulting tweets and posters and slogans. Some companies that
do business on the West Bank actually make Palestinians’ lives easier, but they
are nonetheless targeted for protests. A number of companies do not sell directly
to Israel. They sell to the US Defense Department, where Israel makes approved
purchases, drawing on funds appropriated by the US Congress. What would happen
to a US company that told the Pentagon it would have to approve the Defense
Department’s customer list? Many targeted US corporations have offices and
headquarters in Illinois. They offer internships to UI students. They hire
students’ parents and relatives. Such companies have reason to expect fair and
specific engagement from UI groups, not uniformed condemnation.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Yet at the campus student government debate last month, companies
in all these categories were basically accused of war crimes. That is not a
carefully reasoned position. National BDS web sites target any company, among
others, that sells to the Israeli army, including companies that sell shoes and
binoculars, even when the same models are marketed to civilian consumers here
and abroad.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">The University has important research collaborations with Israeli
faculty members and their institutions. It has study abroad programs for
students. Academic freedom provides that students and faculty have the right to
pursue those options. The same Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
movement that promotes divestment urges universities to eliminate all those
relationships. It even says faculty members should refuse to write letters of
recommendation for students wanting to study in Israel. The local and national
groups that endorse divestment endorse those demands as well.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is among the important topics
that should be studied and discussed on campus. But a divestment debate is not
a good way to do so. There are courses offered in our institution that
encourage a critical approach to studying Israel and Palestine. These engage in
nuance and context, providing students the opportunity to learn in detail. By
contrast the rhetoric surrounding the divestment debate can be shallow,
informed by simplistic slogans.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">We do not need another acrimonious divestment debate at UIUC.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Faculty Signatories:</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Brian F. Allan, Entomology</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Ilana Redstone Akresh, Sociology</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Richard S. Akresh, Economics</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">May Berenbaum, Entomology</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Jeffrey R. Brown, Dean, College of Business</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Nigel D. Goldenfeld, Physics</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Diane Gottheil, Medicine</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Rachel S. Harris, Comparative Literature</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Richard Herman, Chancellor emeritus</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Richard L. Kaplan, Law</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Deborah Katz-Downie, Plant Biology</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Michael H. Leroy, Labor & Industrial Relations</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Cary Nelson, English</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Gene E. Robinson, Entomology</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Jacqueline Ross, Law</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Richard J. Ross, Law</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Paula A. Treichler, Media & Cinema</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Paul M. Weichsel, Mathematics</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3">Reprinted from The Daily Illini, with additional names added.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#000000" face="Calibri" size="3"> </font></span></p>
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