A corporation never tells, and ours is no exception. There is no way for the conscientious Brown student to march up to University Hall and ask the legitimate, logical question, "Where does our money go?" With its $2.5 billion endowment, Brown currently invests in a variety of companies with the ultimate goal of profit, and it does so behind closed doors, impossible to see, impossible to judge.
The glaring lack of transparency in the Corporation, the University's highest governing body, invades major aspects of Brown life. Decisions like the recent tuition hike reveal the opaque nature of decision-making at the University, reminding us yet again of the questionable manner in which our institution is being run. Our communications with the Corporation range from bureaucratic at best to nonexistent at worst, so it's hard for students to have a say in the things that concern them, practical or political.
Considering Brown's reputation as the "liberal Ivy," a hub of fierce and relentless student activism, I wish there was greater student action urging Brown to make its investment information public knowledge. While complacency remains the norm, there are notable exceptions. Groups like Students for a Democratic Society and the Student Labor Alliance demand that the University opens the books and becomes accountable for its investments.
Another such group is Brown Students for Justice in Palestine, which calls for Brown to divest from companies that profit from the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. BSJP's divestment campaign, a part of the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement initiated by Palestinian civil society, targets companies that help maintain the occupation and violate the rights of Palestinians living in the occupied territories. As an institution that considers itself to be at the forefront of liberal ideology, we cannot allow ourselves to condone — and profit from — the violation of Palestinians' basic human rights by the bulldozers of Caterpillar and the surveillance systems of Motorola. This much is clear.
What needs to be emphasized is that students' awareness of the situation, however keen, is nothing but an intellectual pastime as long as it does not translate into tangible action at the institutional level. Concrete realities need to be matched with concrete actions, and it's time the University takes them. It has been done in other places, and it can be done here, too.
Our current investment information policies do not make matters easier for students of conscience. The Corporation's need to keep us in the dark with regard to its investments poses unnecessary difficulties as it prevents us as students from making educated decisions. These are difficulties that would never arise in a truly democratic institution. Transparency is essential for the socially responsible, morally accountable University that we deserve. However, we must not let its absence discourage us and prevent us from acting.
Even with its current opaque investment structure, Brown has divested from companies facilitating human rights violations in Darfur and companies that manufacture tobacco products. There is no reason that Brown cannot divest again, and it is our responsibility to use our position as stake-holders in the University to lobby, pressure and protest the Corporation to ensure that Brown's investments align with the institution's moral standards.
Therefore, even blindfolded as we are by the University's excessive secrecy, we are not powerless to fight injustice and our own complicity in it. The Corporation may be reluctant to tell us, but we can certainly tell them. We can tell them that we refuse to invest in companies such as Caterpillar — who has a heavy presence on our campus as part of the Building Brown initiative — that demolish the houses of Palestinians, construct the separation wall that divides families, illegally annex land or provide weapons to be used against civilians.
We have the right to know, but we can divest well before they grant us this right. We can make sure that regardless of the Corporation's unwillingness to reveal information about its current investments, we will not be the unknowing enablers of the Israeli occupation. Brown students have the power to put in place a policy that ensures we do not profit from the suffering of Palestinians and do not fund the perpetuation of injustices done to them. We cannot afford to wait for the University to open the books. The situation is far too grave for that. We need to act now, ignorant of investments, but fully conscious of the kind of beliefs our institution ought to uphold.
Nikhil Kalyanpur '13 loves the word "why." He can be reached at nikhil_kalyanpur@brown.edu.
