Thread by @thestustustudio

BREAKING: Joseph Edelman, a Brown University trustee, has now resigned over the future divestment vote at Brown University.

As a result, I am releasing my recording of the Wednesday meeting where the Brown Divest Coalition presented their proposal to divest from Israel.

Here is video of the full presentation below. Remember, Brown is a private university; you can't FOIA this video. Without me, this recording may not have ever gone public.

I honestly wanted a bit more time with this footage and other divestment trainings I have recorded to present this in a digestible format. The language of ESG is how many of these students are getting their foot in the door and they are being trained to exploit this. There is a lot I could say about this subject.

However, Edelman's resignation will hopefully get sizable attention, and I hope by "democratizing" this footage, you can see how ridiculous this presentation was. If you use it, please tag me so I can boost it and comment if needed.

I really enjoyed watching Professor James Kellner grill the students after their presentation. Kellner is a Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology and Environment and Society. In a past life, I imagine he must have been a lawyer. He is one of the professors who is a member of the Advisory Committee on University Resources Management (ACURM).

Here he explains ACURM's duties when it comes to "social harm." In a truly golden moment, he then asks the students if they know that Brown University is not directly invested in any of the ten companies they want to divest from.

Kellner posed a philosophical question to the students about how social harm could be easily identifiable if we presume that companies are responsible for how their products are used. He used alcohol as an example of something that is widely used yet creates social harm.

President of the Undergraduate Council of Students, Niyanta Nepal, didn't engage with this thought experiment and instead focused on how strong the students feel about divestment and how personal Palestine is for the student body.

Nepal ran on a platform of divestment and even participated in the hunger strike for eight days.

Again, Kellner gets philosophical and discusses how possibly neutrality cannot exist; if so, should we consider the net good and net harm of these companies?

It sounds like Nepal, but could be another student, responds that the students are only looking at the harm.

Kellner says, "The world is more complicated than that." He uses flying on airplanes as an example of a social harm that also provides great benefits. He asks the students to consider how the university needs to consider the totality of a company.

The students once again don't engage with these questions and go back to how the student body has spoken about not wanting to be complicit and how they have proven how great the social harm is.

Kellner now asks the students about what Brown should do considering that they have received a letter from 24 Attorney Generals threatening legal action if the university divests.

Rafi Ash, the Treasurer of the Undergraduate Council of Students and Secretary of Brown/RISD Young Democratic Socialists of America, walks us through his legal analysis of the situation. He sees this as illegal and unconstitutional. He also believes these politicians are "jockeying for political power."

Kellner is such a good professor. If he is like this in the classroom, I imagine his students grow so much if they rise to the occasion.

"I appreciate that response; I'm going to push back and ask you to try again from a slightly different point of view."

Kellner walks the students through how grants work, how they "flow through other states," and how they could be jeopardized if Brown University divests.

Ash doesn't engage with this. Instead, he blames "fundamentally extremist politicians" and wants us to consider "who does the university stand for?" He sees this as an issue of academic freedom and that these students are simply questioning the university.

Major Takeaways from the Divestment Presentation

-Kellner rules and has such a great approach. We should all be blessed to have such a professor who challenges you to be your best.
-These are the best that Brown has to offer? Really?
-Volvo being one of the companies they want to divest from makes me laugh. Raise your hand if you ever rode around in that old iconic Volvo station wagon!
-One of my followers recently said, "Nobody else has coverage on events like this and it’s so important." If you agree and appreciate my reporting, buy me a coffee! See my pinned tweet to see how to show me some love.