Tim Tai
The Yale College Council announced today that the student body has passed the divestment referendum by a large margin.
The referendum, proposed and written by the pro-Palestine Sumud Coalition, asked three questions. The first two ask whether Yale should disclose and divest from its holdings in military weapons manufacturers, “including those arming Israel,” and the third asks whether Yale should “act on its commitment to education by investing in Palestinian scholars and students.”
The first question received 83.1 percent “yes” votes, the second 76.6 and the third 79.5.
For all three questions, the total number of respondents who voted “yes” also amounted to over one third of the student body. All three referendum questions therefore met the requirements set by the YCC constitution to officially pass.
As the referendum officially passed, the YCC will send a letter to University President Maurie McInnis expressing referendum results. YCC President Mimi Papathanasopoulos ’26 and Vice President Esha Garg ’26 told the News that they plan to send this letter by Wednesday, Dec. 11, and will include a link to the letter in the following YCC newsletter.
3,338 total students voted in the YCC referendum, or 49.5 percent of the student body. This total student participation is more than the two previous YCC referendums on democratizing the Yale Corporation and divesting from fossil fuels. Neither past referendum immediately caused the University to change their policies, but they both sparked further advocacy for their respective topics and in 2021, Yale introduced more stringent policies for fossil fuel investments.
“The engagement in this referendum is unprecedented – almost half of the student body voted,” Garg said of the student participation in the referendum.
Several organizers for Sumud wrote to the News that the referendum results prove that the student body is overwhelmingly pro-divestment and pro-Palestine.
“University leaders have long tried to paint pro-Palestine and pro-divestment students as a fringe minority. The results of this referendum demonstrate that in reality, the movement for a free Palestine and a more ethical endowment is overwhelmingly popular,” said Han Pimental-Hayes ’26, an organizer with the Sumud Coalition and the Yale Endowment Justice Collective.
Some students and student organizations have spoken out against the referendum. In addition, several national organizations dedicated to supporting Israel and combating antisemitism at American universities have advocated against the referendum.
Yale Friends of Israel, an undergraduate organization which had advocated against the referendum, wrote that while they are “disappointed” with the referendum results, they are certain Yale’s policy will not change.
“While we are disappointed by the results, we are confident that Yale University will not divest from democracy — that it will continue to invest in companies that assist in the protection of the United States and its allies, including Israel, from the tyrannical and anti-democratic forces that wish to destroy them and democracy itself,” Yale Friends of Israel wrote to the News.
The YCC was founded in 1972.
Correction, Dec. 16: This post has been updated with the correct spelling of Papathanasopoulos’ last name.