The University of Maryland SGA will consider a resolution calling on the university and its charitable foundation to disassociate from corporations, institutions and academic entities that “support or profit from Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation.”
The resolution was introduced at the Student Government Association’s Wednesday meeting. If passed, SGA would urge the university and the University of Maryland College Park Foundation to implement boycott, divestment and sanction policies against companies and institutions “complicit in the oppression of Palestinians.”
The association would also demand the university create a process for student oversight on investments and partnerships to ensure it isn’t “complicit in violations of international law and human rights, including those perpetrated against the Palestinian people.”
“We’re dealing with a very urgent situation in Palestine,” said Daniela Colombi, the resolution’s cosponsor. “This phase of a U.S.-Israeli genocide that our university is complicit in has been going on for almost two years.”
This is the first time SGA will consider a resolution about divestment since students voted in support of divestment in a campuswide referendum last April. Other divestment resolutions failed to advance through SGA in 2017, 2019 and 2024.
Colombi, a senior astronomy and physics major, said the new resolution holds more weight than the referendum in the spring. The computer, mathematical and natural sciences college SGA representative added that the resolution was able to include more information about the issue, while the referendum was more vague.
This university wrote in a statement to The Diamondback that SGA’s debate and decision will have no bearing on university policy or practice. The University of Maryland College Park Foundation directed all comments to the university.
In an interview with The Diamondback on Wednesday, university president Darryll Pines said the university supports students’ right to discuss the issue. But he said the university wants to ensure the process is “open and fair and has dialogue from all parties of our broad student body.”
The resolution was first supposed to be presented last week and voted on at Wednesday’s meeting, which falls during the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah. The resolution was removed from the agenda shortly before last week’s meeting.
Several of this university’s Jewish student organizations posted a joint statement on Instagram last week that said SGA’s actions this year have “marginalized Jewish voices and aim to harm Jewish life on campus.”
Jewish Student Union president Lucy Schneider told The Diamondback on Thursday that boycott, divestment and sanction resolutions are often problematic because there’s “antisemitic rhetoric embedded into BDS resolutions that make it harder for Jewish students and Israeli students to feel comfortable on campus.”
Schneider said SGA’s decision to vote on a separate emergency resolution last week and bypass the organization’s usual voting process meant student voices weren’t being heard. SGA ultimately passed that resolution, which called on this university to recognize Israel’s offensive in Gaza as a genocide.
[SGA resolution demands UMD recognize Israel’s offensive in Gaza as genocide]
Maryland Hillel, the Jewish Student Union and other community organizations wrote in last week’s statement that they will not attend any student government meetings on the topic.
“We will not legitimize the efforts of any SGA members’ one-sided, anti-Israel, and antisemitic agenda,” the statement read. “We remain committed to debate and dialogue when they are conducted in good faith.”
Schneider, a junior communication major, added that voting on the resolution is not worth the community’s time because of this university’s previous statements that SGA’s voting will not change its actions.
The proposed resolution also calls on the university to disclose its investments.
It mentions Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin as two companies who supply weapons, surveillance technology or other infrastructure used by Israel that this university should boycott and divest from.
The two companies gave the university more than $46 million dollars from 2010 to November 2023, The Diamondback previously reported. A majority of the donations and research funding was given to the engineering school.
[UMD SGA passes act urging university to recognize Graduate Labor Union]
SGA’s diversity, equity and inclusion and student affairs committees are set to discuss and vote on the resolution next week.
At SGA’s general body meeting on Sept. 10, the legislature approved a change to its bylaws that makes it easier for students to vote in committees.
All undergraduate students may now vote in a nonbinding student vote at their first committee meeting. The student vote can be adopted as the official committee report with a two-thirds vote from the legislature.
If the resolution receives favorable committee reports, it could be voted on by the SGA legislature as soon as next week.
SGA Speaker of the Legislature Diego Henriquez announced on Wednesday that he will allow proxy voting for the next general body meeting. The process lets legislators who are unable to attend the meeting send in their votes by emailing him, he said.
This decision came after legislators expressed concerns that they could not attend the meeting due to it being the night before Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday.
Proxy votes are not counted if substantial amendments are made to the bill, Henriquez said.
Assistant news editor and administration reporter Sam Gauntt interviewed university president Darryll Pines for this story.
