Vowing to continue to fight what it called an "environment of repression" on the campus, Anti-Racist Action on Wednesday expressed its frustration in an open letter to President Ruth Simmons over her decision last month to accept the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investing and reject ARA's proposal for divestment from all companies doing business with Israel.
By not making her response to the proposal public, ARA wrote, Simmons failed to "comply with the basic principles of democracy: transparency and accountability."
ARA was founded by seven students but now counts 60 members, according Dara Bayer '08, an ARA founder. "We will not easily be intimidated or co-opted, since democracy and anti-racism mean far more to us than you can possibly imagine, anticipate or pacify with your misleading gestures," the group said in its letter to Simmons.
"We made it clear that democratic institutions do not conduct their business behind closed doors; yet you have refrained from presenting publicly in a clear and professional manner what exactly led you (to) decide not to divest," ARA wrote.
Simmons has not recently received any documents directly from ARA that she has had the opportunity to review or comment on, Marisa Quinn, assistant to the president, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald Wednesday.
In a private Feb. 18 letter addressed to Bayer, Simmons relayed her decision to reject ARA's proposal for divestment from Israel, saying she "concluded that I concur with (ACCRI's) judgment and I will not recommend this course of action for Brown."
Simmons suggested ARA consider different forums such as lectures or seminars to further explore and analyze the group's "issues and ideas." The president also encouraged ARA to submit requests to bring speakers to campus through a new University fund she established last month to "facilitate a wider variety of lectures and perspectives on the campus."
ARA, however, dismissed the president's explanation and suggestion. "You rejected our proposal without so much as engaging in the logic of our arguments," ARA said in its letter to Simmons. "We will not be bought off like so many other student movements have been in the past on this campus."
The organization was "disgusted" over what it felt was the University's insinuation that ARA's views are of an "extreme minority," ARA said in its letter. "This suggestion is untrue and is gratuitously divisive and inflammatory. Our actions are part of a national and international movement to divest from Israel."
ARA said Israel is a "regime that functions as an Apartheid state in the frontline of American empire in the Middle East," and that failing to divest is to "remain complicit in institutionalized white supremacy and U.S. empire."
ARA also asked why the University does not disclose the contents of Brown's investment portfolio and why the minutes of the ACCRI meeting at which the proposed divestment was rejected have not been made public. "Why would any democratic minded leader consult an ethics commission whose decision making process cannot, for some reason, be subject to public scrutiny?" the letter said.
ACCRI Chair and Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies Harold Ward wrote in the committee's Feb. 15 recommendation letter to Simmons that the ACCRI agreed unanimously that ARA's proposed divestment did not meet the standards set in its Charter paragraph 1-e-vii, a part of the faculty rules and regulations. That paragraph says divestment is only appropriate when it "will likely have a positive impact toward correcting the specified social harm and no other effective means of achieving a positive impact within a reasonable time appears to exist."
Ward could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
ARA posted copies of Simmons' letter and ARA's response on its Web site, www.browndivest.org.
