The University of Maine System board of trustees meeting in September 2023. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald, file

The board of trustees for the University of Maine System will not take up demands to divest financially from Israel, the board’s chair announced in a letter Friday.

The decision is a response to a petition, signed by hundreds of students, faculty and alumni across the system, asking the trustees to end all investment in Israeli companies or U.S.-based companies that sell weapons to Israel, as well as end academic ties with the country.

That would have applied to about $1.6 million in investments, or about 0.22% of the system’s holdings as of last April, according to system records.

In November, more than a dozen students, faculty members and alumni spoke during the board’s public comment period, arguing in favor of divestment and pushing back on changes to a proposed free speech policy. Many spoke about the high civilian death toll and academic losses in Gaza, and reminded trustees of the system’s history with divestment: In 1982, it was among the first higher education institutions to divest from apartheid South Africa.

The trustees hosted a special meeting of the executive committee on Dec. 17 to consider putting the six demands on the agenda for January. But after a 25-minute executive session, the board publicly deliberated and came to a consensus that it would not advance the issue.

Board of trustees Chair Trish Riley said she had met with students about their concerns, but that the board’s responsibility is to foster open discourse.

“The question here is, is it appropriate for the board of trustees, given our statutory responsibility to assure that this university is a place of open discussion and discourse, is it appropriate for us to take a position on these demands?” she asked executive committee members.

In the letter Riley authored on Friday, she told students that the board would not support their demands, and to do so “would compromise the critical role of our public universities in fostering understanding, discussion, and examination of complex issues through academic inquiry and research.”

“Furthermore, we believe it would not promote the inclusivity that we strive to create on our campuses and in the community,” Riley wrote.

She said it is not the trustees’ place to weigh in on foreign policy matters, and said taking a position would shut down discourse and undermine the board’s educational mission.

Willow Cunningham is a computer engineering graduate student at the University of Maine, and an organizer with the UMaine chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. They said the board’s decision is not surprising, and that it has emboldened student groups.

“There’s a lot of energy going forward to make it clear to the board that they can’t just not consider this issue, that it’s actually quite important to all of us,” Cunningham said.

Student organizers plan to comment at future trustee meetings, organize rallies and gather a larger coalition across the university system. And Cunningham said dismissing Israeli divestment as too political, despite the 1982 South Africa divestment decision, makes the system look bad.

“At the time, the board held that apartheid ‘conflicts with the moral values of the university’ and that since corporations had been identified to be part of the problem of perpetuating the system, just as they are today, it was our obligation to divest,” Cunningham said. “This idea that the board is staying in their lane, or not taking a position, fundamentally ignores the fact that we currently have over a million dollars invested in complicit corporations. We already have a position, and it’s to support genocide, to support apartheid.”

On its Instagram, the UMaine Jewish Voice for Peace chapter said the fight for divestment is not over, and encouraged supporters to show up and speak at next month’s trustees meeting.

“We will continue to amplify demands in solidarity with Palestinians, confront administrative complacency and strengthen student coalitions until divestment is actualized,” the post reads.

Some American universities have considered divestment, although many have decided against the move. A few city governments have taken up the issue as well. The city of Portland voted to divest from companies doing business in Israel in September, and in late November the Belfast City Council approved a divestment from companies associated with the Israeli military.