Students reject divestment proposals

S.REF 01 passes, urging investment transparency for RMC

By James Cancelarich     12/12/24 1:58pm

The student body voted to pass S.REF 01, which asks the Rice Management Company to disclose all of its holdings investments, but rejected the remaining divestment proposals. While every ballot measure gained a majority of votes in favor, the remaining three did not achieve the two-thirds threshold required to pass.

A total of 1,898 students voted, amounting to a 39.7% voter turnout — just shy of the general February election’s 42.1%, the highest turnout since 2018. Student Association president Jae Kim attributed high turnout to the “novelty” of an off-cycle election, and said the referenda tackled subjects important to student voters.

S.REF 01, which passed with 71.5% approval, places the RMC under no obligation to disclose its holdings. The results will be sent to university administrators as a gauge of student opinion, Kim said. Voting closed Dec. 11 at noon. 

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Following the results of the vote, Rice administration praised the SA for “fostering respectful campus debate,” according to a statement from university spokesperson Chris Stipes. However, Stipes also said that the university’s endowment is bound by legal agreements that prohibit Rice from disclosing its investments.

“To ensure the integrity and effectiveness of our investment strategies, operations and partnerships, we do not publicly disclose certain information about the endowment,” Stipes wrote in a statement to the Thresher. “Many of the endowment’s investment partnerships are governed by non-disclosure agreements which legally prohibit Rice Management Co.’s disclosure of holdings within these partnerships. Importantly, Rice complies with all investment-related disclosure requirements under applicable federal and state law.”

If passed, the remaining proposals would have presented a series of opinions about the university’s financial policies — including, but not limited to, urging Rice to divest its funding from pro-Israel companies and adopting a commitment to “anti-colonial scholarship.” 

The second, third and fourth referenda received 57.9%, 61.4% and again 61.4% approval, respectively.

They were passed by the SA senate on Oct. 28. Following a campaigning window, students began voting on Dec. 4. 

Cole Holladay, a representative for Rice Students for Justice in Palestine, said the turnout and approval for the referenda was encouraging, despite their narrow failure.

“Despite the success of the referenda, we had hoped for greater support to pass Referenda 2-4, as we do not view their contents as radical,” Holladay wrote in a message to the Thresher. “This is the nature of movement building: we embrace small wins along the way, knowing they will ultimately add up to victory.”

This is the second SA attempt to address the Israel-Gaza war. Last semester, the Office of Access, Equity and Equal Opportunity ordered an indefinite halt on a resolution that proposed divesting SA-disbursed funds — including Blanket Tax money — from pro-Israel companies. The resolution was tabled due to a complaint alleging that the resolution was discriminatory; the complaint was eventually resolved with insufficient evidence to support wrongdoing.

[12/17/2024 5:49 p.m.] This article was updated to include comment from university spokesperson Chris Stipes and SJP representative Cole Holladay.

[12/12/2024 7:25 p.m.] This article was updated to include comment from Kim about voter turnout and S.REF 01.

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