A weeklong hunger strike didn’t bring Brown University students much closer to pushing their school to divest from arms manufacturers amid the Israel-Hamas war.
But tensions rose between the 19 students and the administration, with allegations of memorial flags removed, chalk messages washed away and limits placed on protest gatherings – all of which Brown says is regulated by their policies in one way or another.
Though students rallied on campus, staged sit-ins in the student center and fasted for their cause, the Brown Corporation did not act on their demands in recent meetings on Thursday and Friday.
Here’s what students wanted, and what the school said
At those meetings, student activists wanted the corporation to divest its endowment from numerous companies producing weapons, from Boeing to Northrop Grumman and several others. Protesters have argued these companies are “enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza.”
But the administration is holding firm on its decision to keep its investments in place.