Multi-billionaire Barry Sternlicht is threatening Brown University and the university president Christiana Paxson for merely negotiating with student protesters on campus. In an email to Paxton, according to the New York Times this meeting amounted to sympathy for Hamas.
Sternlicht said that the student protesters are “ignorant” and that both the school administration and the students lack “facts and moral clarity.” Sternlicht suggested that these students think that Hamas is “noble” and, therefore, should be driven out of the university. In a threatening tone his letter also reminded President Paxson of the role of large donors last year to remove two Ivy League presidents. Sternlicht has been one of the largest contributors to Brown and one residence hall is named after him. He served two terms as a university trustee there.
This follows a pattern of financial intimidation and harassment against anyone active for peace in an operation known as the “Canary Mission.” Further information on this “Canary Mission” can be found here: ‘Canary Mission’: McCarthyite Blacklist Against Jews and Palestinians.
The pressure against universities considering divestment can also be seen in a threatening Wall Street Journal commentary that school endowments must follow strict fiduciary obligations to act only in the best interest of the university. Any change to an endowment portfolio could violate these obligations and the school trustee making the changes risks being held personally responsible.
The divestment issue clearly hits a very sensitive spot. The amount of funds is insignificant, but the public relations value is priceless. The effort to end Apartheid in South Africa took off in the 1980s when university students in the U.S. protested and forced 155 universities to divest from South Africa. Another Apartheid system faces a similar fate.