University endowments show few signs of direct Israel, defense holdings
School investments are targets of Pro-Palestinian groups calling for “divestment,” even if the ties aren’t always clear.
By Todd C. Frankel
May 3, 2024 at 4:27 p.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/05/03/university-endowment-funding-protests-israel/As some universities strike deals with pro-Palestinian student groups to discuss calls for school endowments to stop investing in Israel and defense stocks, an examination of available public documents by The Washington Post finds few direct holdings in either by the largest public school endowments, underscoring the difficulty in any potential attempt to ultimately satisfy protesters’ divestment demands.
The simple slogans of protest are running headlong into the intricacies of modern finance.
At the University of California at Los Angeles, the recent pro-Palestinian protests have echoed with a rallying cry heard at campus protests nationwide in the wake of the Israel-Gaza war: They want the university to cut financial ties with Israel. “Divest NOW” was how one sign near the protesters’ encampment this week put it.
Those demands came despite the students having little information about where U.S. college endowments actually put their money. The schools — which sit on holdings worth a staggering $850 billion combined — must disclose some of their largest public stakes in annual regulatory filings but are not required to fully disclose their holdings. They generally refuse to divulge precise details behind their investments. Even public universities’ annual reports and regulatory filings are light on specifics.
