UC Davis passes divestment resolution again
The Associated Students of the University of California, Davis (ASUCD) passed divestment resolution SR 17, with 10-0-2 vote. This marks the second time the ASUCD voted in favor of divestment. The original resolution, labeled SR 9, was deemed unconstitutional by the UC Davis Campus Court after it passed earlier this year.
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The new resolution, labeled SR 17, explicitly addresses “student welfare” which, according to the UC Davis Campus Court, SR 9 did not include. Despite the UC Davis Campus Court forcing the Divestment Community to revise its resolution and present it a second time, it still passed with overwhelming majority. UC Davis is one of seven UC schools that have passed divestment resolutions so far.
The Divestment Community at UC Davis is made up of several organizations such as Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), SMART, S.L.A.T.E., the UC Student Worker Union (UAW), etc.
Passing the divestment resolution took the members of the Divestment Community more than three years to accomplish. In 2013 the first attempt to pass divestment ended when the resolution was rejected in commission hearings.
A year later, the resolution passed the commission hearings, but resulted in a 5-5-2 tie. The Associated Students, University of California at Davis Vice President decided to abstain from voting, resulting in a 5-5-3 failure.
The Divestment Community finally achieved a victory this year when the resolution passed with an 8-2-2 majority. Despite this majority, the resolution was deemed unconstitutional, and the Divestment Community was forced to revise their resolution.
The revised resolution was passed, yet again, with a nearly unanimous 10-0-2 majority.
“The passage of the resolution was followed with a barrage of racist and Islamophobic harassment directed at Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims on-campus,”Evan Sandlin, Political Science Graduate student at UC Davis said.
The UC Divestment Community ultimately achieved its goal, despite all the attempts to stifle their campaign and the harassment they endured.
